The Vietnamese government has required banks in Vietnam to increase their capitals to at least 62.9 million U.S. dollars or 188.7 million dollars, depending on kinds of credit institutions, by the end of 2008.

Under a recent government decree, legal capitals for joint stock banks, joint stock banks, wholly foreign-owned banks and the Central People's Credit Fund in 2008 and 2010 were set at 1 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (roughly 62.9 million dollars) and 3 trillion VND (nearly 188.7 million dollars), respectively, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Monday.

Legal capitals for state-owned commercial banks in 2008 and 2010 are the same, standing at 3 trillion VND (nearly 188.7 million dollars).

Legal capitals for finance firms and finance leasing companies for 2008 were set at 300 billion VND (nearly 18.9 million dollars) and 100 billion VND (roughly 6.3 million dollars), respectively. The respective figures set for 2010 stand at 500 billion VND (31.4 million dollars) and 150 billion VND (9.4 million dollars).

The government has assigned the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, the country's central bank, to revoke licenses of banks whose registered capital is smaller than the legal capital, the newspaper said.

Source: Xinhua