VNBusinessNews – Banks say there have been a lot of customers including corporations and individuals showing special attention to the Government-initiated subsidized lending program, as lenders are flooded with calls to query about the program. Under this program, the Government will pay four percentage points in the annual interest rate for eligible borrowers in a given period of time.

Nguyen The Ke, director of Phu Lam Transaction Office of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), said that during on Monday many corporate clients of the bank coming to his office to ask if they were subject to the rate support from the Government. “They want such information to calculate their business plan for this year,” he said.

Nguyen Quoc Sy, deputy general director of Western Commercial Bank, told the Daily that compared to previous months, the number of customers including new ones asked about and wanted to enjoy rate support was much higher.

“Western Bank’s branches in other provinces said that enterprises had positive response to the subsidized lending,” he said.

Meanwhile, an executive of Vietnam International Bank’s HCMC Branch said that during Monday, there were a lot of emails from its corporate customers, mostly exporters, asking about the rate support.

However, almost all banks showed concern on the responsibility when carrying out the rate support program. An executive of a joint-stock bank said that the most thorny issue was how to appraise the purpose of borrowers to use such soft loans. In addition, banks also have to supervise the use of the capital during and after disbursement to ensure the Government’s capital is properly utilized.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, head of Monetary Department of the central bank, told the Daily that banks were allowed to approve loans under the subsidized lending program, but that did not mean all loans would be subject to the rate support from the central bank. Only loans regulated by the Government are subsidized, he said.

Recently, banks have announced credit lines set aside under the subsidized lending, at VND35 trillion at Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), VND25 trillion at VIB, and VND50 trillion at Techcombank. (SGT)