Vietnamese Banks’ Net Interest Margins Stabilize in Q3, but Most Remain Under Year-on-Year Pressure
In the third quarter of 2026, the median net interest margin of 28 Vietnamese banks held steady at 2.67%, but 18 banks recorded year-on-year declines. Credit growth supported net interest income, while interest expenses rose faster than interest income. A falling share of demand deposits also put pressure on funding costs.
In the third quarter of 2026, the median net interest margin (NIM) of 28 Vietnamese commercial banks was 2.67%, virtually unchanged from the second quarter and slightly above the first quarter’s 2.66%. Although 16 banks improved from the previous quarter, 18 recorded year-on-year declines, and 22 remained below their third-quarter 2024 levels. Banks with higher NIMs saw larger declines: the NIM range for the middle 50% of the sample narrowed from 2.38%–3.71% two years earlier to 2.21%–3.03%.
Credit continued to expand. At the end of September, the 28 banks’ outstanding customer loans exceeded VND 16 quadrillion, up 12.47% from the start of the year. Third-quarter net interest income rose 20.3% year on year to VND 170.884 trillion. However, interest income rose 43.3% while interest expenses climbed 62.6%; the increase in interest expenses amounted to 78.6% of the increase in interest income, reducing net interest income as a share of interest income from 45.6% to 38.3%.
The deposit mix also changed. At the end of September, customer deposits at the 28 banks had risen 10.56% to VND 14.38 quadrillion, while demand deposits were virtually unchanged. The share of demand deposits fell from 21.4% at the end of 2025 to 19.38%. In the first nine months of the year, customer loans increased by nearly VND 1.79 quadrillion, exceeding the VND 1.37 quadrillion increase in customer deposits. Faster growth in term deposits and the gap between loan and deposit growth could continue to affect funding costs and NIMs.
Performance varied among banks. Vietcombank and VietinBank posted third-quarter NIMs of 2.87% and 2.81%, respectively, up 0.28 and 0.24 percentage points year on year. VPBank remained in first place at 5.01%, though its NIM fell 0.36 percentage points year on year. HDBank and SHB recorded growth in net interest income despite declining NIMs; Sacombank’s NIM fell to 2.46%, and its net interest income declined 33.6% year on year.
Source: VietVance
