Hanoi, Aug 20 (IANS): Many banks in Vietnam, which used to focus on lending to individual (retail) customers, have had to shift to expanding corporate lending to achieve credit growth in the first half of 2024, Vietnam News Agency reported Tuesday.

Some local banks known for specialising in lending to individual customers and classified by many organisations as retail banks, recorded outstanding corporate loans of more than 50 per cent by the end of the second quarter of 2024, the agency said.

Nguyen The Minh, Director of Research and Development of Individual Customers at Yuanta Securities Vietnam Company, said banks had not dared to lend to individual customers because they were afraid of the risks.

It is possible to recover debts from enterprises, but it is very difficult to recover debts from individuals, he said.

He predicted that retail credit would improve next time when unemployment decreases and people's income increases.

Le Hoai An, a lecturer at the Banking University, said in the first half of this year, individual lending remained limited and banks were quite selective in choosing customers.

The credit growth of the Vietnamese banking system increased 6 per cent as of June 30 against the end of 2023, according to the State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank of the Southeast Asian country, reported Xinhua news agency.