Banks accompany people and businesses to overcome difficulties after the storm

Storm No. 3 has caused serious damage, greatly affecting people's lives and production and business activities. In order to promptly support people and businesses to overcome difficulties, credit institutions in Quang Ninh have implemented many solutions to support customers. Reporters from the Provincial Media Center interviewed Mr. Thai Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Quang Ninh Branch. (image) about this content.

- Storm No. 3 caused heavy losses to thousands of customers of credit institutions in the province. Could you tell us more about this number?

+ Although proactively preventing and fighting the storm according to the direction of the central and provincial governments, due to its great intensity, storm No. 3 has caused damage to the facilities of most agencies, units, businesses and people in the province. The Quang Ninh banking sector also suffered damage to facilities of about 50 billion VND, some transaction offices and ATMs had to temporarily stop operating. However, what is worth noting is that many customers borrowing capital from banks were severely affected. According to preliminary statistics up to now, the whole province has 23,198 customers damaged by storm No. 3 with a total outstanding debt of 11,756 billion VND, accounting for 6.2% of the total outstanding debt in the whole area. Of which, the industry - construction sector has 1,492 customers with a total outstanding debt of 5,287 billion VND; the trade - service sector has 7,486 customers with a total outstanding debt of 4,325 billion VND; In particular, the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector has 14,220 customers with a total outstanding debt of VND 2,144 billion.

In localities with large aquaculture areas such as Van Don and Quang Yen, according to preliminary statistics, most of the people's aquaculture facilities were "wiped out" by storm No. 3; tens of thousands of hectares of forest in localities in the province were severely damaged.

- To support customers to overcome difficulties, what solutions has the provincial banking sector had to support customers?

+ Immediately after the storm passed, the State Bank of Vietnam paid close attention, took drastic action, and joined hands with the locality to overcome the consequences of the storm. On September 9, 2024, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Document No. 7417/NHNN-TDCNKT deploying solutions to support customers to overcome the consequences caused by storm No. 3. On September 11, 2024, the Standing Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, Dao Minh Tu, directly worked with banks in the two localities of Quang Ninh and Hai Phong .

Permanent Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Minh Tu visited families of people affected by storm damage in Tan An ward (Quang Yen town). *Photo: Thuy Duong (Contributor)*

The State Bank of Vietnam, Quang Ninh Branch, has issued a document directing credit institutions in the area to quickly overcome difficulties, stabilize banking operations, and proactively review and summarize the losses of customers who are borrowing capital to promptly apply support measures and remove difficulties, such as: Restructuring debt repayment terms, considering loan interest exemptions and reductions, continuing to provide new loans to restore production and business; handling debts and risks according to current regulations for customers who have suffered heavy losses and are unable to pay according to current regulations... At the same time, coordinate with departments and branches to have more solutions to remove difficulties for affected customers.

With the spirit of always accompanying and sharing difficulties and losses with businesses and people facing difficulties due to the impact of the storm, banks in the province, according to their authority, will evaluate each customer to have plans to restructure debt, extend debt, reduce interest..., deploy new credit loan packages with reasonable interest rates and reasonable scale to help people and businesses resume production and business, and recover after the storm.

To encourage people to overcome difficulties, the State Bank of Vietnam, Quang Ninh Branch, organized delegations to visit and encourage affected families, especially poor households, policy households, and ethnic minority households; carried out social security work for families with losses in human lives and property, and areas heavily affected by storm No. 3, quickly overcoming the consequences of natural disasters and stabilizing life.

"The storm passed, leaving behind many difficulties and losses, but the biggest thing that remained was humanity and responsibility. Many localities after the storm were flooded, landslides..., many households were homeless, both property and human losses, many very sad situations. Therefore, the responsibility of the banking sector is to share difficulties with people and businesses. There is support in the issue of loans so that people have the opportunity to do business and produce again, from there there will be a source of money to repay the bank" - that is the direction of the Standing Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam in a direct working session with banks in Quang Ninh. In that spirit, the banking sector of Quang Ninh has, is and continues to have specific actions demonstrating the responsibility to share difficulties with people and businesses.

Currently, 5 commercial banks: Agribank, Vietcombank, BIDV, Vietinbank, BVBank have implemented policies to support people affected by storm No. 3, such as: Adjusting interest rates down by 0.5-2%/year; exempting 100% of overdue interest and late payment interest; reducing lending interest rates and supporting interest rates for new borrowers, especially short-term loans, restoring production and business activities arising from September 6.

Particularly, the Quang Ninh Social Policy Bank has temporarily stopped collecting interest from 12,709 households borrowing policy credit loans that were damaged by storm No. 3 until December 31, 2024. Along with that, with central and local capital sources, from September 9 to now, the Bank has disbursed VND 108.7 billion to 1,620 households, including many households damaged by storm No. 3, to overcome difficulties, restore production and develop the economy. The Bank will continue to focus capital to prioritize loan disbursement for households, areas and localities affected by the storm, ensuring full response to demand. At the same time, coordinate with relevant departments and branches to develop and soon complete the draft resolution on loan interest rate support and additional lending policies.

The State Bank of Vietnam Quang Ninh Branch will continue to update and summarize customers' losses, report to the State Bank of Vietnam to direct credit institutions to reduce lending interest rates for existing customers suffering losses; supplement the credit program for loans without collateral with appropriate interest rates to have capital to restore production and business; Develop a circular to guide the mechanism for extending and deferring debts affected by storm No. 3.

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