Commercial banks in Vietnam gained big profits in the first quarter of this year, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Monday.

The Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) posted the highest growth in the period, with a gross profit of 413 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) ( 25.8 million dollars), increasing nearly 3.8 times over the same period last year.

The bank, with total asset value of more than 50.3 trillion VND (over 3.1 billion dollars), is expected to exceed the profit target of 1.5 trillion VND (nearly 93.8 million dollars) for 2007, said ACB general director Ly Xuan Hai.

The Vietnam Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) recorded a pre-tax profit of 177 billion VND (nearly 11.1 million dollars) in the first three months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 2.6 times. The bank's bad debt rate was nearly 0.9 percent late March.

Between January and March, the Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank posted a gross profit of 302 billion VND (nearly 18.9 million dollars), up nearly 1.9 times over the same period last year.

Source: Xinhua