Vietnam wants banks to accept crypto and patents as loan collateral for small businesses: Report

In a positive development, small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam could soon walk into a bank with digital assets or intellectual property and walk out with a loan, under a proposal put forward by the country’s Ministry of Finance.

The ministry has drafted revisions to the Law on Support for SMEs that would formally recognize a broader range of assets as acceptable collateral, including virtual assets, digital assets, future-formed assets, intangible assets and intellectual property rights. The draft is currently out for public consultation.

The reasoning behind the push is rooted in a significant credit gap. SMEs and household businesses make up more than 98 percent of all enterprises operating in Vietnam, yet the loans extended to that segment represent only around 20 percent of total bank credit in the economy. The Ministry pointed to three factors driving that disparity: insufficient collateral, limited financial transparency and the typically small capital base of most smaller businesses.

Tech startups and software companies sit at the heart of the problem. Many hold patents, software licenses and other intellectual property that carry real commercial value but cannot be pledged under existing lending rules that favor land and physical assets.

The Ministry framed the proposal as consistent with Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo, which recognizes the private sector as a core engine of national economic growth.

Beyond expanding what counts as collateral, the draft law also calls on credit institutions to move away from fixed-asset-heavy lending assessments. Banks would be encouraged to weigh credit ratings, business plans, cash flow projections and market expansion potential when making lending decisions.

The development comes two months after reports suggested that five 

Vietnamese companies had passed the initial qualification round in a race to launch this Southeast country’s first regulated cryptocurrency exchange. As per reports, the companies included affiliates of private banks Techcombank, VPBank and LPBank, alongside stockbroker VIX Securities and conglomerate Sun Group.