Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Total assets of credit institutions and foreign banks in Vietnam by the end of the first quarter of this year inched down 0.72 per centto 12.48 quadrillion VND (521.76 billion USD) compared to the end of last year.

The latest report released last week by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) showedassets of four large State-owned banks, including Agribank, Vietcombank,VietinBank and BIDV, accounted for 41.76 percent of the total assets.

The report also showed total charter capital of the institutions by the end ofQ1 2020 increased by 0.85 percent against the end of 2019 to 617.5 trillion VND,of which 145.1 trillion VND were from the four State-owned banks.

Equitycapital of credit institutions and foreign banks’ branches in Vietnam reached 937.9trillion VND.

However, experts were concerned that surging overdue loans from the COVID-19pandemic-induced economic fallout could threaten Vietnamese banks' capitalaccretion momentum, with many banks likely to face capital shortfalls shouldthe weak economic conditions persist.

It was estimated that Vietnamese banks may face a capital shortfall of up to 2.5billion USD (27 percent of their combined end-2019 equity) in meeting the SBV'sBasel II minimum total capital adequacy ratio requirement of 8 percent. Ofwhich, the State-owned banks would face the largest gap.

The SBV also reported 76 credit institutions, including two State-owned banks,20 commercial joint stock banks, two joint-venture banks, nine whollyforeign-owned banks and 43 foreign banks’ branches, have so far met the BaselII capital adequacy ratio./.