At the same time, depositors kept banks tellers busy as they took advantage of the offer.

The Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) now gives an interest rate of 14 percent for deposit terms of more than six months and 13.5-13.8 percent for those of less than six months.

The Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) lured in clients by offering 13.68 percent for 13 months, 13.56 percent for 12 months and 13.44 percent for nine months.

Meanwhile, many other banks have also raised their interest rates , but with a focus on short-term and mid-term deposits.

The Hanoi Building Commercial Bank (Habubank) offers rates of 15 percentfor 1-24 month deposit terms and 12-14.4 percent for 1-3 week terms while the

Vetnam Commercial Bank for Private Enterprises (VP Bank) is giving 15 percent for over six month terms.

The Export and Import bank (Eximbank) has introduced a 14.196 percent rate for 7-13 month terms and 14.004 percent for 1-6 month terms.

The Dong A Bank offers 13.8 percent per annum for 1-6 month terms and 14 percent per year for 7-12 month terms.

The Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) now has an annual interest rate of 13.8 percent for deposits of over nine months.

The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) raised deposit interest rates to 13.3 percent on term deposits of under six months, 13.5 percent for deposits of 6-12 months and 13 percent for over-12 month deposits.

On the morning of May 19, many clients queued up at BIDV branches in Hanoi to deposit their money.

Some other banks have predicted that the number of clients going to deposite their savings would be larger on May 20 as the announcement was just made on May 19.

However, these banks are not likely to encourage very short term or long term deposits.

Eximbank, for example, only offers long term deposits with a lower interest of around 13.5-13.7 percent per year.

In the next few days all banks are expected to give new rates of minimum deposit at about 13 percent per year, or around 15 percent at maximum. However, according to Nguyen Thanh Toai, deputy general director of the ACB Bank, the deposit rate will not exceed 15 percent.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s monetary policy department, predicted that interest rates would stay stable in the next few days.

The busy trading at commercial banks on May 19 was the result of the interest rate being lifted by the central bank on May 17.