Circular No. 28/2025/TT-NHNN amending and supplementing certain Articles of Circular No. 27/2024/TT-NHNN on cooperative banks, the process of setting aside, managing, and using the Fund for Ensuring Safety of the Credit Cooperative System

CIRCULAR

||| Amending and supplementing certain Articles of Circular No. 27/2024/TT-NHNN on cooperative banks, the process of contribution, management, and utilization of the Safety Assurance Fund for Credit Cooperatives

||| concerning cooperative banks, the process of contribution, management, and utilization of the Safety Assurance Fund for Credit Cooperatives

 

Pursuant to the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam No. 46/2010/QH12;

Pursuant to the Law on Credit Organizations No. 32/2024/QH15 amended and supplemented by Law No. 96/2025/QH15;

Pursuant to the Law on Cooperatives No. 17/2023/QH15;

Pursuant to Decree No. 26/2025/NĐ-CP of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the State Bank of Vietnam;

At the proposal of the Director of the Credit Institution System Safety Department;

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam issues this Circular to amend and supplement certain Articles of Circular No. 27/2024/TT-NHNN on cooperative banks, the process of contribution, management, and utilization of the Safety Assurance Fund for Credit Cooperatives.

Article 1. Supplement Point c to Clause 2 of Article 13

"c) Increase the registered capital from the source of state support funds."

Article 2. Amend and supplement some Points and Clauses of Article 17

1. Delete the phrase "Bank Inspection and Supervision Authority" at Point d Clause 1 and Point d Clause 6 of Article 17.

2. Amend and supplement Clause 5 of Article 17 as follows:

"5. Inspect credit cooperatives according to the requirements of the State Bank regarding the objects, contents, scope, and time limits for inspection as stipulated below:

a) Cooperative banks shall be responsible for drafting, promulgating, amending, and supplementing the Inspection Regulation for Credit Cooperatives in accordance with this Clause and submit it to the State Bank for comments before its promulgation or amendment. Within seven working days from the date of issuance or amendment, the cooperative bank must submit the Inspection Regulation for Credit Cooperatives to the State Bank;

b) The Inspection Regulation for Credit Cooperatives must be approved by the Board of Directors and ensure that it includes at least the following contents:

(i) The subjects implementing the inspection;

(ii) The scope, content, purpose, and principles of the inspection;

(iii) The inspection procedures;

(iv) The inspection deadlines;

(v) The rights and responsibilities of the related parties;"

c) The report on the results of inspecting credit cooperatives must be submitted to the State Bank Branch in the Region where the inspected credit cooperative is headquartered within seven working days from the date of completion of the inspection."

3. Amend and supplement Clause 7 of Article 17 as follows:

"7. Appoint personnel of cooperative banks in the following cases:

a) Appoint personnel to hold the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director, and Deputy General Director of credit cooperatives when early intervention is required upon request of the State Bank Branch in the Region where the credit cooperative is headquartered;

b) Appoint personnel for the State Bank Branch in the Region to designate the Chairman and other members of the Board of Directors; Head and other members of the Audit Committee; General Director, Deputy General Director, and equivalent positions as stipulated in the Charter of the credit cooperative under special supervision upon request of the State Bank Branch in the Region;

c) The personnel proposed for appointment at points a and b must meet the regulations on qualifications and conditions for holding the appointed positions as stipulated for the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Board Members, General Director, Deputy General Director, Head of the Audit Committee, and other members of the Audit Committee of credit cooperatives, except for the condition of being a member of the credit cooperative."

4. Amend and supplement some Points and Clause 8 of Article 17 as follows:

a) Replace the phrase "State Bank Branch in the province/city" with the phrase "State Bank Branch in the Region" at Point c(ii) and Point d Clause 8 of Article 17;

b) Amend and supplement Point c(iii) Clause 8 of Article 17 as follows:

"(iii) Regulations on the entry, exit, storage, inventory, and management of blank savings books; receiving and destroying unused blank savings books of credit cooperatives in accordance with the provisions of the law;"

c) Replace the phrase "province/city area" with the phrase "region area" at Point d Clause 8 of Article 17;

d) Supplement Point d to Clause 8 of Article 17 as follows:

"d) Receive unused blank savings books from credit cooperatives and carry out destruction in accordance with the provisions."

5. Supplement Clause 10 to Article 17 as follows:

"10. Monitor credit cooperatives according to the following provisions:

a) Cooperative banks shall monitor the safety of each credit cooperative and the safety of the system of credit cooperatives to support the management activities of the State Bank and fulfill their role as the bank for all credit cooperatives;

b) The monitoring activities of cooperative banks must comply with the following principles:

(i) Be carried out based on collected information and data to compile and analyze in order to promptly prevent and detect risks causing loss of banking operation safety, violations of banking operation safety regulations, and other relevant laws;

(ii) Must comply with the law; ensure accuracy, objectivity, truthfulness, transparency, democracy, and timeliness; not hinder the normal operations of member credit cooperatives;

(iii) Combine compliance monitoring with risk monitoring, individual credit cooperative safety monitoring with system-wide credit cooperative safety monitoring;"

c) Contents of monitoring the safety of each credit cooperative:

(i) Cooperative banks shall monitor compliance with legal regulations on banking operation safety, other legal regulations on currency and banking in the operations of each credit cooperative, focusing on the following aspects:

Monitoring compliance with restrictions, limits, and safety ratios in operations; classification of assets, provision for risk.

Monitoring compliance with qualification and standard conditions for managers and operators and compliance with governance and management structures.

Monitoring compliance with legal regulations on lending, deposit-taking, and accepting deposits;

(ii) Cooperative banks shall monitor risks through analyzing and assessing the risks of each credit cooperative, focusing on the following aspects:

Analyzing and assessing significant changes and abnormal fluctuations in asset items, liabilities, equity, revenue, anticipated profits, expenses, business results, and safety restrictions and limits.

Analyzing and assessing changes and information related to managers and operators, capital contributions, and contributors affecting governance and management effectiveness.

Analyze and assess the risk situation based on unfavorable information that may significantly impact the people's credit fund.

Analyze and assess the lending situation, the quality of loans to high-risk sectors, customers, and transactions to evaluate their significant impact on the operations of the people's credit fund;

d) Contents of system safety supervision for the people's credit fund:

(i) Analyze and assess the level of financial soundness to detect risks affecting the safety of the people's credit fund system including:

Analyze and assess the situation of capital, capital safety, capital mobilization, and capital utilization.

Analyze and assess liquidity conditions.

Analyze and assess non-performing debt and asset quality.

Analyze and assess business results and anticipated profits.

(ii) Analyze and assess economic developments and the impact of other sectors in the economy that pose a risk to the stability of the people's credit fund system;

đ) Cooperative banks are responsible for establishing, promulgating, amending, and supplementing the Supervision Regulation for People's Credit Funds according to the provisions of this clause and submit it to the State Bank for comments before the regulation is issued or amended. Within seven working days from the date of issuance or amendment, cooperative banks must submit the Supervision Regulation for People's Credit Funds to the State Bank.

The Supervision Regulation for People's Credit Funds must be approved by the Board of Directors and include at least the following contents:

(i) Principles of supervision;

(ii) Procedures and formalities for supervision;

(iii) Contents of supervision;

(iv) Principles for preparing and approving reports on supervision results:

Reports on supervising the safety of people's credit funds must be prepared quarterly. Quarterly reports on supervising the safety of people's credit funds must be completed before the last day of the second month of the subsequent quarter.

Reports on supervising the safety of the system of people's credit funds for the first six months of the year must be completed before August 20th of the same year. Annual reports on supervising the safety of the system of people's credit funds must be completed before April 10th of the following year;

(v) Management and storage of documents, information, and data serving supervision activities;

(vi) Forms and reports on supervision results;

(vii) Rights and responsibilities of related parties;

(viii) Risk analysis methods.

The Supervision Regulation for People's Credit Funds must be submitted to the State Bank for comments before November 30, 2025;

g) Reports on supervision results:

(i) Cooperative banks must submit reports on supervising the safety of the system of people's credit funds to the State Bank within three working days from the date of receiving the supervision results report;

(ii) Cooperative banks must submit reports on supervising the safety of people's credit funds (for each individual people's credit fund or consolidated reports of people's credit funds under the jurisdiction of each branch of the State Bank) to the branch of the State Bank where the main office of the people's credit fund is located within three working days from the date of receiving the supervision results report).

Article 3. Amend and supplement Clause 2 of Article 20

"2. Open a settlement account at a credit institution providing payment services through accounts."

Article 4. Amend and supplement some Points and Clauses of Article 21

1. Supplement Point d of Clause 1 of Article 21 as follows:

"d) Purchase and sell central bank bills, deposit certificates, and bonds issued by credit institutions and foreign bank branches."

2. Amend and supplement Point a of Clause 2 of Article 21 as follows:

"a) Purchase and sell government debt instruments, government-guaranteed bonds, local government bonds;"

Article 5. Amend and supplement Clause 3 of Article 23

"3. Issue the Regulation on capital regulation, the Regulation on checking people's credit funds, the Regulation on internal auditing of people's credit funds, and the Regulation on supervising people's credit funds according to Clause 1, Clause 5, Clause 6, and Clause 10 of Article 17 of this Circular."

"a) The annual fee contribution rate is 0.05% of the average annual loan balance immediately preceding the end date of December 31 for cooperative banks and people's credit funds, where the average annual loan balance is calculated by dividing the total loan balance (Groups 1 and 2 as defined by the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam regarding asset classification for cooperative banks and people's credit funds) at the end of each month during the year by the actual number of months to be counted. For cooperative banks, the loan balance at the end of each month shall exclude the portion of loans allocated for capital regulation for member people's credit funds and loans provided to member people's credit funds to address temporary liquidity difficulties;"

Article 7. Amend Clause 1 of Article 26

Delete the phrase "Bank Inspection and Supervision Authority" in Clause 1 of Article 26.

Article 8. Amend Clause 4 of Article 29

Delete the phrase "Bank Inspection and Supervision Authority" in Clause 4 of Article 29.

Article 9. Amend and supplement Article 32

"Article 32. Responsibilities of units under the State Bank of Vietnam

1. Responsibilities of the State Bank Inspectorate:

a) Inspect and check the activities of cooperative banks according to the assigned functions and tasks regarding the implementation of this Circular;

b) Inspect and check cooperative banks in establishing, managing, and using the Preservation Fund according to this Circular;

c) Advise the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam to assign cooperative banks to conduct checks on people's credit funds, provide opinions, and accept the Regulation on checking people's credit funds according to Clause 5 of Article 17 of this Circular.

2. Responsibilities of the Credit Institution Management and Supervision Department:

a) Supervise the activities of cooperative banks according to the assigned functions and tasks regarding the implementation of this Circular;

b) Supervise cooperative banks in establishing, managing, and using the Preservation Fund according to this Circular;

c) Provide copies of the License from the original book for cooperative banks according to Clause 2 of Article 6 of this Circular;

d) Provide opinions on the Regulation on supervising people's credit funds established by cooperative banks according to Clause 10 of Article 17 of this Circular;

đ) Receive reports as stipulated in Clause 3 of Article 13; Article 29 of this Circular and regulations stipulated in Clause 1, Clause 6, Clause 10 of Article 17; Clause 1 of Article 26 of this Circular.

3. Responsibilities of the Credit Institution System Safety Department:

Receive reports on the results of supervising the safety system of people's credit funds according to Point g(i) of Clause 10 of Article 17 of this Circular.

4. Responsibilities of the State Bank Branch in the Region:

a) Require cooperative banks to appoint personnel to hold the positions of Chairman of the Board of Directors, Board Members, General Director, Deputy General Director, Head of Departments, and Board of Supervisors Members of people's credit funds according to Clause 7 of Article 17 of this Circular;

b) Accept reports on the results of checking people's credit funds, reports on the provision of white savings books to people's credit funds within the region, and reports on the results of supervising the safety of people's credit funds according to Clause 5, Clause 8, and Point g(ii) of Clause 10 of Article 17 of this Circular;

c) Provide opinions on the Regulation on checking people's credit funds when requested by the State Bank Inspectorate."

Article 10. Amend Article 34

Delete the phrase "Director of the Office, Director of Banking Inspection," from Article 34.

Article 11. Amend and supplement the annexes

2. Replace Annex No. 02 promulgated together with Circular No. 27/2024/TT-NHNN with Annex 02 promulgated together with this Circular.

3. Replace the phrase "Banking Inspection Authority" with the phrase "Credit Institution Supervision Department" at Point 3 of Annex No. 03 promulgated together with Circular No. 27/2024/TT-NHNN.

Article 12. Responsibility for Implementation

Heads of units under the State Bank of Vietnam, cooperative banks, and people's credit funds are responsible for organizing the implementation of this Circular.

Article 13. Implementation Provisions

1. This Circular takes effect from November 15, 2025.

2. Reporting on the results of monitoring the safety of people's credit funds as stipulated in point g(i) Clause 10 Article 17 of this Circular shall commence from the mid-year report period in 2026. Reporting on the results of monitoring the safety of people's credit funds as stipulated in point g(ii) Clause 10 Article 17 of this Circular shall commence from the first quarter report period in 2026.