Governor of the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) Nguyễn Văn Bình on Thursday began his first online chat with citizens via the Government Web Portal (VGP) to answer public’s questions.

Within two hours, the talk touched upon thorny issues regarding the monetary policy, gold market, attraction of Vietnamese currency.

The Governor said that in 2011, Việt Nam stabilized the exchange rate. Between February and December, the exchange rate fluctuated slightly within 1% which reflected the increasing attraction of Vietnamese dong.

Besides, the foreign currency speculation was on the decline, people sold foreign currency to banks and the liquidity in the system improved.

Governor Bình said that in 2012, the SBV would reinforce supervisory work to punish any violation of deposit interest rate cap, combat unhealthy competition in the banking system especially in terms of interest rate.

The Governor announced that SBV is making a project on mobilizing gold reserve from citizens who are holding around 200-300 tons of gold.

Governor Bình also noted that there is no crisis in the banking system. The ongoing restructuring of banking system is essential as the country is shifting the economic growth model from width to depth and quality. Accordingly, five to eight more banks will be involved in merger in 2012 as part of the process of restructuring credit institutions./.