Vietcombank seeks to raise credit growth cap-report

HANOI Oct 28 (Reuters) - Vietcombank VCB.HM, Vietnam's largest partly private bank, has asked the central bank to raise its credit growth cap for 2009 to 28 percent to support rice exports and oil products, state media reported on Wednesday.

Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh told Dau Tu Chung Khoan (Securities Investment) magazine that outstanding loans at the end of October would be 24 percent higher than a year earlier, nearing the current 25 percent cap.

"Now we are seeking the governor's permission for more credit room, raising the cap to 28 percent because of funding for rice exports and oil products," Binh said in an interview with the magazine, which is run by the Planning and Investment Ministry.

He forecast Vietcombank could make a gross profit of 4 trillion dong ($224 million) this year, after attaining nine-month gross earnings of 3.4 trillion dong, equal to the bank's target for the whole of 2009.

Credit growth for the whole banking system in Vietnam will be more than 30 percent this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told the National Assembly on Oct. 20. [ID:nHAN487310]

But in July the central bank told major state-owned banks plus Vietcombank and VietinBank CTG.HM to cap their credit growth at 25 percent this year to prevent the return of high inflation. [ID:nHAN462390]

Overall lending in Vietnam at the end of September rose 29.3 percent from the end of 2008, while deposits expanded 22.9 percent, Dau Tu newspaper said on Wednesday, citing central bank data. ($1=17,852 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by John Ruwitch and Alan Raybould)