On July 11, 2025, in Can Tho City, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) continued to organize a workshop to gather feedback on the Draft Master Plan for the Comprehensive Restructuring of the People’s Credit Fund (PCF) and Co-operative Bank of Vietnam (Co-opBank) System for the 2025–2030 period, with vision to 2045. This was the second workshop following the one held in the northern region on July 4, 2025, to collect diverse perspectives from stakeholders in order to complete the draft. The workshop was co-chaired by SBV Deputy Governor Doan Thai Son and representatives from the People’s Committees of Can Tho City and Vinh Long Province.
Also attending were representatives from central Party agencies, ministries, and departments; southern provincial and city People’s Committees; SBV departments; several commune-level People’s Committees; the Deposit Insurance of Vietnam; the Vietnam Association of People’s Credit Funds (VAPCF); several PCFs; and online participants from SBV regional branches in southern provinces. Representing Co-opBank was Ms. Dang Mai Phuong – Member of the Board of Directors, along with several Southern Branch Directors.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Governor Doan Thai Son emphasized the urgent need to restructure the PCF and Co-opBank system to build a safe, transparent, and sustainable community-based financial system. He called on delegates to contribute their opinions to improve the draft plan.
Deputy Governor Doan Thai Son (speaking), co-chairing the session with local leaders from the Southwest region
At the workshop, numerous comments reflected the operational realities of PCFs in the southern region, highlighting various recommendations and proposals.
A representative of the Can Tho City People’s Committee emphasized that, as of June 2025, there were 49 PCFs operating in the Can Tho and Vinh Long area, with total outstanding loans exceeding VND 3,200 billion and nearly 66,600 members. However, challenges remain, such as limited governance capacity, high NPL ratios (above 5.5%), outdated IT systems, and a lack of diverse products and service.
From the SBV’s side, a representative of SBV Regional Branch 10 reported on the status of PCFs in Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces. During the process of administrative unit consolidation at the commune level, overlapping operating areas among PCFs emerged, potentially violating the principle of “no internal competition” in the PCF model. SBV Regional Branch 10 proposed that the SBV provide clear guidelines on reorganizing the PCF network in line with the new administrative boundaries. They also recommended enhanced risk supervision, post-inspection enforcement, and tighter coordination with local authorities to ensure system safety.
In addition, VAPCF suggested that the SBV carefully review the lending cap policies for PCFs, revise regulations on development investment funds, and allow higher provisioning rates to strengthen financial capacity for investment in technology and governance modernization. They also proposed exempting tax on member capital contributions to encourage increases in PCFs’ charter capital.
PCFs also raised concerns regarding administrative boundary mergers and the regulation that each commune may only host one PCF; inconsistencies in syndicated lending procedures between Co-opBank and PCFs were also cited…
Representing Co-opBank, Ms. Dang Mai Phuong – Member of the Board of Directors – highlighted that current legal regulations governing Co-opBank operations do not fully support its role as the central linkage for the PCF system. Since Co-opBank and PCFs are legally independent entities, Co-opBank lacks the authority to enforce standardized operations, risk management processes, or shared policies and technologies across the system. Recently, Co-opBank, in collaboration with VAPCF, developed and disseminated five sample internal regulations for PCFs, including: lending operations; collateral measures and asset handling; savings deposit transactions; and the management and use of PCF-issued documents. However, these are merely reference materials for PCFs and are not legally binding or uniformly applied across the system.
She also noted that the Safety Fund’s current size is still limited, and there is no liability exemption mechanism for decision-makers when approving loans for financially distressed PCFs. This limits the Fund’s effectiveness as a “buffer” to mitigate system-wide risk.
These existing issues, which are not yet fully addressed in the draft plan, were directly raised by Ms. Dang Mai Phuong to be added for a more complete proposal.
Ms. Dang Mai Phuong – Member of the Board of Directors – presenting at the workshop
In his closing remarks, Deputy Governor Doan Thai Son emphasized that restructuring the PCF and Co-opBank system is necessary to reorganize and streamline cooperative credit institutions, enabling them to become genuine microfinance channels that support the poor and vulnerable populations in rural areas, and contribute to nationwide financial inclusion.
The Deputy Governor highly appreciated the presentations and inputs from various units, noting that all feedback will be considered to refine the draft. According to him, SBV’s functional departments will finalize and supplement the plan within July, so it can be submitted to competent authorities and, eventually, to the National Assembly. He also instructed PCFs to strengthen their sense of initiative and self-discipline in improving their organizational models toward greater professionalism, efficiency, and alignment with the cooperative credit model’s principles and purpose.
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