VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) looks to purchase bad debts totaling around VND40 trillion (US$1.8 billion) by the end of this month, said VAMC chairman Nguyen Quoc Hung.

The sum accounts for half of VAMC’s target to buy around VND80 trillion in bad debts on book value this year.

“VAMC’s debt purchases have gone smoothly,” Hung said and added the company has issued over VND10 trillion worth of special bonds for bad debt purchases since the beginning of this year.

Only seven credit institutions sold around VND6 trillion of bad debts to VAMC in the first quarter of this year, but all banks have offered to sell debts to the company. Over 90% of the debts VAMC has bought are guaranteed by properties.

VAMC has recovered more than VND3 trillion of debt since early this year, taking the total it has settled since mid-2013 to VND8 trillion.

“We aim to collect VND10 trillion of bad debts in 2015,” Hung said.

VAMC looks to buy bad debts totaling around VND170 trillion from the local banking system by the end of May. It sees the target for total bad debt purchases of around VND200 trillion at the end of this year as realizable.

Hung said VAMC will focus more on bad debt settlements from early next year after it has purchased VND200 trillion of bad debts.

All State-run banks have cooperated with VAMC in bad debt trading.

At its annual general meeting in April, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) chairman Tran Bac Ha said the bank sold nearly VND6.2 trillion to VAMC in 2014 and would sell VND8 trillion more this year.

The Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) plans to sell around VND4 trillion to VAMC this year, including VND1 trillion in the second quarter.

The Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) is expected to sell the biggest bad debt volume to VAMC but the process is moving slowly.