After the announcement by the State Bank of Vietnam to carry out a bank restructuring process, commercial banks have been hurriedly restructuring themselves by changing the brand identification system, improving the service quality and seeking new way of development.

Eximbank has carried out a noisy media campaign on the occasion of introducing a new logo with the appearance of Fabio Cannavaro, the former Captain of the Italian national soccer team which won the champion title in the World Cup 2006.

This could be seen as a special gift for football fans as Eximbank has become the main sponsor to the Vietnam Premier League from 2011 to 2013.

Explaining the move of “changing dress” at the time when people and businesses complain about big difficulties, Truong Van Phuoc, General Director of Eximbank, said that the goal of listing itself in the list of top Vietnamese banks by 2020 in terms of import-export and retail banking would be unfeasible, if Eximbank cannot find a suitable way to follow.

In order to obtain that goal, Eximbank has been trying to diversify products, developing corporate banking together with retail banking, developing the network and upgrading the governance skills.

Bac A, a small bank, which once faced liquidity problem and has just got a credit of 3 trillion dong from the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam BIDV, has also just “changed the dress”.

Thai Huong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bac A Bank, said that the bank is making a breakthrough in its development strategy in order to turn the small bank into a medium class bank.

Bac A has found the big opportunities from the rural market, where there are 70 percent of the population. It is also considering targeting the clients - businesses in agriculture, clean medicine, healthcare and education.

Over the last three years, Vietnam has witnessed a series of domestic banks spending multi-million dollars to change logos and the brand identity system, including VietinBank, Maritime Bank, VP Bank, VIB Bank, HDBank and OceanBank.

It is clear that the changes in the appearance of the banks imply the changes in the quality and strategy. Instead of only targeting the clients-businesses which bring the majority of income, banks now have been targeting individual clients as well. Especially, some big banks have made the first steps in their plans to reach out to the world by registering their brands in many countries.

However, experts say they still can see problems in the renovation of banks. Most of the banks have decided to provide personal banking as well instead of focusing on wholesale; they still cannot offer attractive products. The services of banks are nearly the same, and banks only compete with each other in the interest rates. Meanwhile, no one can make the clients’ thought change overnight.

Pham Viet Anh, Chair of Left Brain Connectors, a brand consultancy firm, said that not all the changes can bring the desired effects immediately. Commercial banks need to conduct market surveys and analyze data about their clients to outline the main points in their media campaigns.

In related news, commercial banks reaped big profits in 2011, despite the big difficulties of the national economy.

Three out of five commercial banks which list their shares on the stock market and have submitted finance reports, have reported the net profit of over one trillion dong for the fourth quarter of 2011. They are Vietcombank VCB which made a profit of 1219 billion dong, the Asia Commercial Bank ACB 1092 billion dong and EIB 1023 billion dong.

Other banks have also reported profits, though their profits are not too big. To date, Habuban remains the only bank that has reported the loss of 41 billion dong in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Source: VNN