Hung passed away on April 25, 2024 at the age of 72. Tran Mong Hung, born in 1953, was well known as the founder of ACB, which was established in 1993 and was the first CEO of the bank (1993-1994). After that, he was elected to the post of chair of the board of directors of ACB and stayed in the position for 15 years (1994-2008).

In 2008, Hung decided to recede into the background and worked as an advisor in administration. After that, ACB fell into crisis, suffering risks, bad debts and big debts in gold which occurred during the time when Nguyen Duc Kien, or ‘Boss Kien’ (born in 1964), was a major shareholder and chair of the founding council, an institutional regime not recognized by Vietnamese laws.

In March 2010, ACB’s standing committee of the board of directors held a meeting discussing the plan on authorizing staff to use money and US dollars for deposits at credit institutions. At that time, Hung suggested lowering deposit interest rates to mitigate the amount of capital mobilized from the public.

ACB then was one of the banks which could mobilize big capital from the public but could not lend money, while it still had to pay interest on deposits.

However, Kien did not agree with Hung, saying that ACB’s total assets must not decrease.

Ly Xuan Hai, who was then CEO of ACB, suggested authorizing ACB’s staff to deposit money at credit institutions. However, the amount of VND719 billion that Boss Kien instructed his staff to deposit at other banks was appropriated by Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu.

Nguyen Duc Kien had been on the board of directors of ACB since 1994, but he later left the board. Kien’s family, including his wife and three siblings, was holding 10 percent of ACB shares in 2006. Kien held shares at other banks, namely Eximbank, KienLongBank, DaiABank and Techcombank.

The comeback

After a period of retreating and working behind the scenes, in late 2012, Hung’s family made a comeback after former leaders of the bank were arrested and prosecuted, including Boss Kien.

In 2012, Tran Hung Huy, Kien’s son, was appointed to the post of chair of the board of directors. Hung also officially came back as a member of the board of directors in 2012-2018. Dang Thu Thuy, the wife of Hung, has also been a member of the board of directors since then.

Hung was described as an excellent, but discreet businessman, a veteran banker and the ‘soul’ of ACB. He not only founded the bank but also helped the bank overcome the difficult time during the post-Boss Kien period.

After four years of making every effort to settle the bank’s problems, from personnel administration to risk management to operations, the bank’s conditions improved in 2016. ACB changed the brand identity, and bad debts decreased.

In April 2018, Hung left the board of directors, while Huy has been piloting the bank through difficulties as chair of the board of directors since then.

ACB has returned to the top-tier joint stock banks in Vietnam with positive lending activities, high profit growth rates, and controlled non-performing loans.

Huy’s family is now holding tens of millions of ACB shares, which puts them in the group of the top richest stock billionaires. All family members are listed among the top 200 wealthiest stock billionaires.

As of the end of 2023, Huy held 133 million ACB shares, or 3.43 percent of total shares, worth VND3.571 trillion as of May 1. Meanwhile, Thuy, the mother of Huy, had 46.4 million shares (1.19 percent). The three companies related to Huy had  157 million shares, worth VND4.215 trillion.

With the figures, the total stock assets being held by Hung and his family members have increased by 6-7 times compared with 2017.

ACB has been performing well in risk management and was unaffected by shocks in the bond market in the 2021-2022 period.

Manh Ha