Moody's Investors Service has upgraded particular ratings of 12 Vietnamese banks after the US-headquartered rating agency revised up Vietnam’s rating last week.
  Moody’s raised the long-term local and foreign-currency deposit and issuer ratings of JSC Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), and Vietnam Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank).
The agency also upgraded the long-term counterparty risk ratings (CRR) and counterparty risk assessments (CRAs) of VietinBank and BIDV, and affirmed those of Vietcombank. The three lenders are run by the Vietnamese government.
Moody's has also upgraded the long-term foreign-currency deposit ratings of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Military Bank), and Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank). All other ratings of these three banks were affirmed.
At the same time, Moody's has upgraded the long-term local and foreign-currency bank deposit and issuer ratings of five banks which are An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABB), Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Lien Viet), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), Vietnam International Bank (VIB), and Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VP Bank). All other ratings of these five banks were affirmed.
Moody's has also upgraded the long-term CRR and CRA of Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank), and Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB). All other ratings of these three banks were affirmed.
Moody's has also changed the outlook for the local currency deposit and local and foreign-currency issuer ratings of eight banks -- Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, ABB, Lien Viet, TPBank, VIB and VP Bank -- to stable from positive.
The rating actions follow Moody's upgrade of Vietnam's sovereign rating to Ba3 from B1, and change in the outlook for the sovereign's rating to stable from positive on August 10.
The baseline credit assessments (BCAs) and adjusted BCAs assigned to the 14 banks stated above are unaffected by today's rating actions.
Moody’s, meanwhile, left the credit ratings, assessments and outlooks assigned to the other two banks in Vietnam unchanged by the upgrade and change in outlook of Vietnam's sovereign rating. These two unaffected banks are Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Caa1 negative, caa2) and Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (B3 stable, caa1).