Meeting the rigorous criteria of the vote, Saigon – Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) excellently becomes the only Vietnamese representative to be honored as Bank of the Year 2020 by The Banker. This is the fourth year that SHB is honored to receive this prestigious award, continuing to affirm the comprehensive and sustainable development of the bank.

The Banker is a prestigious magazine that has been present for 95 years in the world’s banking and financial industry. The Banker belongs to the banking and financial media group Financial Times and is headquartered in London, UK. Bank of the Year is the annual award organized by The Banker to honor the best banks of the year across 120 countries around the world.

SHB excellently met the rigorous criteria of the voting committee and was honored as Bank of the Year 2020 by The Banker. Along with optimistic ROE growth (return on equity), net profit, especially the impressive increase in charter capital and total assets, SHB has shown sustainable development in both scale and business operations.

Making a practical contribution to promoting small and medium enterprises (SME), in December 2019, SHB officially cooperated with the world’s largest e-commerce platform Amazon, facilitating Vietnamese products to be exported to the US market with many favorable conditions. The SHB – Amazon cooperation relationship is considered as timely, in the context that the appearance of Covid-19 has prompted more Vietnamese consumers to shop online. Domestically, SHB continues to sign with the Business Development Fund of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to bring cheap capital to SMEs. The Banker emphasized: “Supporting the SME segment has always been a key and leading activity, demonstrating the level of SHB’s dedication to the country in recent years, which has largely contributed to SHB’s winning of the Bank of the Year award in Vietnam”.

In addition, SHB Bank especially impressed the voting committee with a series of flexible products and services and modern technology solutions to increase practical benefits for customers. In the framework of the vote, SHB’s An Phuc savings package is highly appreciated by the organization board for its efficiency and many attractive incentives. Along with the development of diversified products and services and continuing to implement many digital technology and banking modernization projects, SHB affirms that it is always dedicated to serving customers, providing suitable and reliable financial and non-financial solutions.

In 2020, the world in general and Vietnam in particular is affected deeply by the Covid-19 epidemic on all economic and social aspects. This factor also has a certain impact on the vote of The Banker and SHB continues to show many outstanding advantages. Promoting the role of a leading commercial bank, SHB quickly deployed a credit package of VND 25,000 billion with many incentives on lending interest rates, banking service fees, and especially the interest rate reduction by minimum 2%/year compared with normal interest rate. The bank also exempted or reduced interest rates and fees for old loans, implemented debt restructuring, rescheduled debt repayment and kept the existing debt group for customers facing difficulties due to the impact of the epidemic.

Besides, actively responding to the Government’s call to accompany the whole country to fight against the epidemic, SHB has cooperated with customers, partners and businesses of businessman Do Quang Hien to donate VND 65 billion to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic with the whole country. The bank also donated more than VND 70 billion to people in the Central and Central Highlands to fight storms and floods, and supported social security activities for the poor.

Sharing about the award, Mr. Nguyen Van Le – General Director of SHB said: “Along with sustainable business development and endeavor to best perform all missions for customers, shareholders, community and country, SHB affirms that it is a bank of comprehensive and sustainable development which deserves the Bank of the Year 2020 award. The award continues to recognize and encourage us on our next journey, contributing to connecting the successes and prosperity in the future.”