The banks simultaneously reduce the lending interest rates to support the customers damaged by storms and floods
Initial support
More than VND 2,000 billion was the statistical figure of damage in the recent floods and storms. According to the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue, the whole province suffered damage of over 70% of nearly 500 ha of crops, nearly 900 ha of rubber, 1,300 ha of forests, 50-70% of fruit trees…The damage of agriculture and forestry was nearly VND 353 billion; housing VND 660 billion; animal husbandry and fisheries over VND 53 billion...
Facing the people’s difficulties, the provincial banks involved their officials, employees and workers in supporting, sharing difficulties, visiting and encouraging the affected families; especially the families with loss of people, poor households, policy households, ethnic minority households for them to overcome difficulties and restore production.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien, Deputy Director of Hue Vietcombank, the unit awarded VND 5 billion to support the people in flooded areas of Thua Thien Hue through the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee; visited and encouraged a number of families severely damaged by natural disasters, the officers and soldiers on duty at the Forward Headquarters located in Phong Xuan Commune, Phong Dien District.
Hue Vietcombank has reviewed, totaled, assessed the damage to the loan that currently has debit balance and proposed the timely solutions to difficulties to help customers soon stabilize their life, production and business.
According to State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Thua Thien Hue Branch, until October 30, the provincial banking sector has donated VND 12.25 billion to the people with difficulty due to natural disasters.
Lending interest rate reduction is being made by the banks to support customers
Long-term solution
Mr. Le Viet Sy, Deputy Director of the SBV, Thua Thien Hue Branch said that the State Bank directed the banks, credit institutions (CIs) to proactively monitor the rain situation, urgently review, total the loans with debit balance damaged by floods in order to promptly support the people in overcoming the damage.
The SBV requires the CIs, branches, and transaction offices to urgently and proactively review and synthesize the damage of borrowers to promptly apply the supportive measures and remove difficulties for customers such as to restructure the loan repayment term; based on their financial capacity, to consider exempting and reducing loan interests, to continue providing new loans to restore post-flood production.
The CIs instruct the customers to complete the files, procedures and tackle debts for customers suffering loan damage in accordance with Decree 55 and Decree 116 on the credit policy for agricultural and rural development and the promulgation of the mechanism for tackling risky debts at the Social Policy Bank.
Accordingly, the banks simultaneously made the preliminary survey of customers' initial damage. Through the initial review of the branches and CIs in the province, customers' debit balance due to floods and storms was nearly VND 209 billion with 1,826 affected customers, 35 of which were the enterprises.
The branches, CIs provided new loans to restore production for 1 customer, with the amount of VND 590 million to restore production; restructured debt for 178 customers, with the restructured debt balance of VND 2.84 billion.
As one of the banks focusing on lending capital for production development in agriculture, rural area, Agribank Thua Thien Hue offers many solutions to assess customers' initial damage for support.
According to this bank’s representative, the unit is making a preliminary damage assessment for each area as the basis for the damage assessment of each customer. Depending on the loan program implemented, there will be the specific recommendations for Agribank to provide the supportive directions such as debt rescheduling, debt freezing, or additional lending in order to overcome damage and renew economy.
The remaining banks have also reviewed customers in order to update the damage situation, whereby the solutions are suggested to support the people.
According to Mr. Van Duc Tho, Deputy Director of the Thua Thien Hue Social Policy Bank (SPB), the Provincial SPB Branch has synthesized the capital needs and submitted to the Central Government for consideration of supplementing VND 90 billion. The Provincial SPB Branch has just been supplemented with VND 10 billion. At the same time, the Provincial SPB Branch instructed the district-level SPBs to focus on the recovered capital (rotating capital) plus the newly supplemented central capital (VND 10 billion) in order to prioritize lending to households affected, damaged by the recent storms and floods in order to restore production and business.
Story and photos: Hoang Loan