Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Domestic banks are in a position to completetheir 2019 profit targets if they finish the year on a high.

Thanks to high profits in the first three quarters of the year, many banks areclose to reaching their yearly targets, while others are positive that the busyfourth quarter will be enough to get them over the finish line.

According to the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank), the bank was oncourse to exceed its profit target.

MBBank closed the first ten months of 2019 with pre-tax profit of more than 8trillion VND (347.82 million USD), completing 96 percent of its annual targetapproved by shareholders in April.

The Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank)is also confident of completing its profit goal of 20 trillion VND.

After recording its highest profit ever in the first three quarters of 2019thanks to growing revenue from retail and services, it should be easy for theCommercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) to meetits targets this year. The bank achieved pre-tax profit of more than 17.5trillion VND in the first nine months, completing 86 percent of the annualplan.

With record profits estimated for this year, Vietcombank has already set anambitious profit target of 2 billion USD in 2025. The main motivation for thebank’s growth will be retail and digital banking, of which retail will accountfor half of the profit. Regarding digital banking, Vietcombank aims to maintainits leading position in the market.

The Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) is alsoon track to meet its 2019 profit target of 11.75 trillion VND having already 8.9trillion VND in pre-tax profit in the first three quarters of the year.

Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB),also believed that his bank would complete its yearly profit target, or evenexceed it, because the last quarter was the peak season. In October alone, OCBattained more than 900 billion VND in pre-tax profit, Tung said.

FE Credit had contributed significantly to the Vietnam Prosperity CommercialJoint Stock Bank (VPBank)’s profit, ao the bank said it would meet or evenexceed the pre-tax profit target of 9.5 trillion VND in 2019.

Le Anh Tuan, head of research at Dragon Capital Management Co, said banks’profits were forecast to continue being positive this year although they stillhad to set aside a significant provision for risky loans.

Anh explained revenue from credit had remained high. Though credit growth thisyear was somewhat tighter, the central bank had still expanded credit growthlimits for commercial banks, which had successfully implemented Basel IIstandards, Anh said.

Moreover, profits had also increased significantly since thanks to revenue fromservices, Anh added./.