Agribank has more than 2,200 branches and transaction offices across the country (Photo: Agribank)

It is estimated that 25 banks havemore than 10,700 branches and transaction offices nationwide, mainly in bigcities and provinces.

The State-owned Bank for Agriculture andRural Development (Agribank), which is one of the oldest commercial banks inVietnam with the largest total assets, currently tops the list with more than2,200 branches and transaction offices across the country.

Lien Viet Post Joint StockCommercial Bank (LienVietPostBank) follows with 72 branches, 260 transactionoffices and more than 1,300 post offices that also act as the bank’stransaction offices after LienVietPostBank’s merger with the Postal SavingsServices Company in 2011.

Next in the ranking is the Bank forIndustry and Trade (Vietinbank), Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) andSaigon Thuong Tin Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Sacombank).

Though it is one of the country’sfour largest banks in terms of total assets and outstanding loans, Vietcombankonly ranks sixth on the list with only 500 branches and transaction offices.

Small banks with fewer than 100branches and transaction offices include names such as Tien Phong Joint StockCommercial Bank (TPBank), Petrolimex Group Joint Stock Commercial Bank(PGBank), Viet Capital Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Viet Capital Bank) and BaoViet Joint Stock Commercial Bank (BaoViet Bank).

According to experts, the massivetransaction network has brought many advantages to some banks in enabling themto reach more customers and increase brand recognition. However, since some ofthe networks are too large, the banks struggle to solve the problem of costmanagement.

In fact, some banks, such as TPBankand Orient Joint Stock Commercial Bank (OCB), have small networks but their profitsare not small. The two banks only own about 75 and 120 branches and transactionoffices, respectively, but their profits were high at 1.02 trillion VND and 1.3 trillion VND in the first half of this year, ranking in the top 10 in termsof profit and higher than big banks such as Sacombank, SHB, Vietnam Joint StockExport Import Bank (Eximbank) or Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB).

⭕ Notably, though ranking sixth interms of network size, Vietcombank is the most profitable bank in the countrywith estimated pre-tax profit of more than 11 trillion VND in the first ninemonths of this year.-VNS/VNA