Significant Amendments Of Circular 39 On Lending Activities In Vietnam

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On 28 June 2023, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular 6 (Circular 6/2023) to amend Circular 39/2016 on lending activities of credit institutions (CIs) and foreign bank branches (FBBs). Circular 6/2023 will take effect from 1 September 2023.

Circular 6/2023 introduces stricter control over lending activities conducted by CIs and FBBs. In this post, we will summarize some of the key points of Circular 6/2023.

Additional prohibited lending purposes

Circular 6 provides for certain new scenarios where CIs and FBBs are prohibited from providing loans. These cases include:

Should Foreign Investors Contribute Capital To Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Enterprise In An Amount Denominated In A Foreign Currency Or In VND?

Introduction

An FDI enterprise is an enterprise which is established by foreign investors with or without domestic investors. It is a common practice for foreign investors to contribute capital to an FDI enterprise in a foreign currency, such as USD, with the amount denominated in that particular foreign currency recorded in the FDI enterprise's Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) and/or Investment Registration Certificate (IRC). The difference in exchange rate between the date of the IRC and the date of actual contribution often leads to a disparity between the VND amount converted from the contributed capital in foreign currency and the VND amount recorded in the IRC. Different

In such cases, it remains uncertain whether the foreign investors will be considered to have fully fulfilled their capital contribution because it is not clear which amount should be used to determine if the FDI enterprise's charter capital has been fully contributed: (i) the VND amount after being converted from the foreign currency, or (ii) the actual contributed amount in foreign currency (see analysis below). Different authorities may have different views on this issue.

NEW RESTRICTIONS ON ONE-WAY MONEY TRANSFER ABROAD

On 30 December 2022, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular 20 guiding activities of one-way money transfer from Vietnam to abroad and payment, money transfer for other current transactions of institutional residents and individual residents (Circular 20/2022), which took effect from 15 February 2023. In this post, we summarise certain key points of Circular 20/2022.