It expects banks to achieve such exceptional growth this quarter since they have increased provisions to cover their non-performing loans in the previous quarter.

NPLs surged to a three-year high in 2020, it said.

State-owned VietinBank's chairman Le Duc Tho has said pre-tax profit for the first quarter is expected to surge by over 133 percent year-on-year to VND7-8 trillion ($304-347 million) without including the upfront fee for its bancassurance deal with Canadian insurer Manulife.

SSI forecast the industry’s full-year profit to grow by 24 percent, boosted by 15 percent credit growth expected this year and a decrease in lending costs.

The high growth expectation is reflected in the gains made by banking stocks and the fillip they have given to the benchmark VN-Index, which has risen by 8.1 percent this year to close at 1194.05 on Friday.