Registration of Foreign Loans
When should an offshore loan be announced or registered?
When a company established in Vietnam borrows money from an organization in a foreign country, the loan is considered as an offshore loan. The State Bank of Vietnam (“SBV”) controls offshore loans as a part of its control on foreign currency exchange.
If the term of the offshore loan is under 12 months (short-term), the borrower has an obligation to announce the information about such loan to the SBV. When the term is longer than 12 months or if a short-term loan is extended or not repaid in time, procedures for registration must be conducted. The term is measured from the date of the initial drawdown to the date of the full repayment.
Periodic reports are also mandatory to keep the authority updated on the offshore loan repayment schedule and scheme.
Legal services:
- Notifying and registering foreign loans at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV);
- Extending the loan term;
- Negotiating and drafting of the loan agreements;
- Filling statutory loan periodic reports at the SBV.
How to proceed?
- Contact us via phone, email or create a CRM account to define your investment requirements and objectives with our lawyers.
- Whenever possible we will meet in person to define your legal strategy in dept.
- Our legal services will notably include reviewing the loan contract to ensure compliance with Vietnam’s regulations, submit the documents to the State Bank of Vietnam and assist you to provide detailed explanation on the loan when required.
- We will provide you with the list of required information and documents, as well as the application dossier drafted and translated by us into Vietnamese and English languages.
- At any time, you can access the CRM system to manage and keep a track of your legal services
Vietnamese law provides for “leasehold” and not “freehold. Foreign individuals are not allowed to buy land, but they can buy apartments from the developer of the housing construction project or from another foreign individual. They are not allowed to purchase from Vietnamese owners.
Vietnam’s commitments to the WTO on the services detail each kind of service with specific schedules for accession to the local market by foreign investors.
The country is also member of free trade agreements and international treaties opening the market to foreign investments. Finally, the Vietnamese national regulations also open some sectors to foreign investment.
Foreigners can buy shares in Vietnamese companies. However, depending on each specific business sector of such company, foreign ownership might be capped, restricted or change the conditions under which the company operates.
A foreign’s loans having less than 01 year of loan duration are not required to register with the competent authority, excluding these following situations:
- Renewed short-term loans which have more than 01 (one) year of maturity term.
- Foreign short-term loans without a contract for extension but which still have principal outstanding at the first anniversary of the initial capital drawdown, except where the Borrower completes repayment of the loan within ten (10) days after such anniversary.
For any change or amendment relating to loan’s subject, such as loan term, interest rate, planning for fund withdrawal, planning for debt repayment, and etc; a registration for those change or amendment of loans shall be required by the competent authority to borrower.
A registration for loans must be executed within 30 days since these following times:
- The date on which the mid-term or long-term agreement is concluded;
- The date of the written of guarantee is signed in respect of secured loans;
- The date on which the written fund withdrawal arrangements are concluded in the event that contracting parties have agreed upon such fund withdrawal under signed framework agreements and before such fund withdrawal takes place;
- The date on which an extension agreement for foreign’s loan in a short-term extend to a mid-term, long-term
The date being one (1) full year after the anniversary of the initial drawdown in the case of the self-borrowed loans.
The loan shall be disbursed to the borrower’s account in Vietnam right after a written confirmation of loan registration is issued by the competent authority.
On the quarterly basis, a borrower must take responsibility to report. This is a part of borrower’s obligation for a loan that is registered to the competent authority.
