Vietnam’s Central Bank Starts Buying Dollars as Traders Watch Bank Liquidity

Vietnam’s central bank has begun a scheduled programme of buying US dollars from banks, offering a way to supply them with Vietnamese dong as the year draws to a close. According to reports by Vietstock, Thanh Nien and Dan Tri citing the central bank’s notice, purchases are scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays from November 11 at 25,500 dong per dollar. A session falling on a public holiday will move to the next working day.

The offer is limited to credit institutions and foreign-bank branches with a positive foreign-currency position, the reports said. The central bank may buy no more from each institution than the amount needed to bring that position back to balance, measured at the close of the preceding working day. No total purchase volume has been announced, so the amount of dong that will enter the banking system through these transactions is unknown, according to Thoi Bao Tai Chinh Viet Nam.

The mechanics matter for banks managing their funding: an eligible institution sells dollars and receives dong. Unlike a currency swap, a spot purchase carries no commitment under the same transaction for the central bank to sell those dollars back later, Thanh Nien and Thoi Bao Tai Chinh Viet Nam reported. VPS Securities, cited by the latter outlet, said the purchases could therefore provide longer-lasting dong liquidity and add to foreign-exchange reserves.

The spot-purchase schedule follows a separate operation announced on November 6: a dollar-dong swap with a maximum size of $2 billion and a 182-day term, according to Vietstock and Thanh Nien. Under that arrangement, participating banks receive dong when they sell dollars and agree to buy the dollars back when the contract matures. The central bank’s announced ceiling is not the amount necessarily taken up; VNDIRECT Research, cited by CafeF, put the amount awarded at about $1.8 billion.

VNDIRECT linked the central bank’s room to buy dollars to a stronger dong, which it said had gained about 2.9% since the start of 2026, and to an improvement in the goods trade balance. Its research, reported by CafeF, put October’s trade surplus at about $7.3 billion. Those are VNDIRECT’s assessments of the conditions surrounding the operation, rather than a stated central-bank target for purchases.

For equity investors, VNDIRECT examined 13 periods of central-bank foreign-currency purchases between 2016 and 2023. It found that Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index rose one month later in 11 cases, by an average of 4.35%, and three months later in 12 cases, by an average of 9.87%, according to CafeF. VNDIRECT cautioned that the sample was small and that several purchases coincided with broader market advances. Vietstock also noted that any effect on stocks depends on actual funding costs, corporate earnings prospects and investor demand.

VNDIRECT raised another qualification for banks: the central bank has previously issued bills during periods of substantial dollar purchases to absorb dong liquidity. The brokerage said a similar response in late 2026 or 2027 could not be ruled out, citing inflation pressures. For now, the scheduled purchase price is known; the quantity of dollars banks will sell under the new programme is not.