Number of banks’ non-performing loans falls At least 3.25 percent of the total outstanding loans at banks non-performing loans (NPL) at Vietnamese banks as of December 31, as reported by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).   This was released by the central bank after analyzing reports submitted by credit institutions. Analysts said there was a big difference between the figures reported by commercial banks and those obtained by the watchdog agency through remote monitoring. There also exists a big gap between the 3.25 percent NPL ratio reported by commercial banks and the estimated figure released by the government in early 2015. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, when answering the National Assembly Deputies’ queries in mid-February 2015, said the NPL ratio had fallen to 3.8 percent by September 2014 from 4.17 percent by June, 4.11 percent by July and 3.9 percent by August. He also said the ratio was expected to fall further to 2.5-2.7 percent by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the State Bank, reporting before the National Assembly, said that the NPL ratio had fallen to 5.4 percent by the end of September 2014, predicting that the rate would drop to 3.7-4.2 percent from 17 percent by September 2012. The figure of 17 percent caused a big shock to the public. In October 2011, when SBV’s Governor for the first time exposed information about the banking system’s NPL ratio, the figure was reported at 10 percent. The NPL ratio then increased dramatically, to 17 percent just one year later. But the information was only made public in early 2015. Explaining the differences in the figures about NPL, the central bank said figures vary depending on the input materials and sources of information. Besides, the ratio may change rapidly as debts may be collected, or classified as bad debts. Meanwhile, the debt calculation methods used by commercial banks may also vary because of different debt classification systems. However, this explanation cannot satisfy economists, who say that policymakers cannot set reasonable policies to deal with bad debts as they are not aware of everything. Several days ago, nine listed banks also surprised the public when reporting a low NPL ratio below 3 percent. MB Bank had the highest NPL ratio at 2.87 percent, followed by NCB 2.51 percent, Eximbank 2.46 percent, and Vietcombank 2.3 percent. NCB achieved a record low NPL ratio, dropping from 6.06 percent of total outstanding loans to 2.51 percent. CV