The Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBB) has appointed vice-chairman of its board Luu Trung Thai as its general director, with effect from Monday.

Thai replaces Le Cong, who has assumed the position of the bank’s vice-chairman, also from Monday.

Thai, who has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Hawaii, worked for nearly 20 years with MBB, holding many important positions. He will continue to operate MBB and maintain its leading position among the country’s top banks on operational efficiency.

Following its five-year strategic development plan for the 2016 to 2020 period, MMB will strongly focus on digitisation, strengthening customer relationships, and enhancing its payment as well as risk management capacities.

At end of 2016, MBB earned a pre-tax profit of VND3.7 trillion (US$ 164 million), up 18 per cent year-on-year, and exceeding 4.5 per cent of its annual target.

The bank’s total assets in 2016 reached VND250 trillion, which was 104 per cent of its the annual goal. Its capital touched VND17 trillion, which was as per target; while capital mobilisation crossed VND195 trillion, 102 per cent of its target.

MBB’s loans in 2016 amounted to VND 149trillion, three per cent over its plan. Its non-performing loans (NPLs) stood at 1.33 per cent. 

Maritime Bank to list on UPCoM on Friday     

Maritime Bank will list 1.17 million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on January 20.

The medium-sized bank has not yet announced the reference price for its shares on the first trading day. The bank’s shares are traded currently at around VND3,000 per unit in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

Maritime Bank reported outstanding loans of only VND28 trillion (US$1.233 billion) in 2015, while its total assets amounted to VND104.3 trillion and it had a charter capital of VND11.75 trillion. The bank’s ratio of non-performing loans, excluding those sold to the Viet Nam Asset Management Company (VAMC), stood at 3.4 per cent at the end of 2015.

Last week, shares of another medium-sized bank – Vietnam International Bank (VIB) – started trading on UPCoM at a reference price of VND17,000 per share.

Other than VIB and Maritime Bank, several other banks have also announced plans to trade on UPCoM, including Techcombank, VPBank, OCB and Kienlong Bank, all of who have said that their listing plans have already been submitted to the State Securities Commission (SSC).

Other banks said they are considering listing shares on either the HCM City bourse (HOSE) or Ha Noi bourse (HNX), instead of UPCoM.

Analysts said banks cannot delay their listing plans any longer. The finance ministry’s Circular 180 has mandated that public companies that do not have their shares listed on the bourses must register to trade their shares on UPCoM no later than December 31, 2016.

According to the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX), which controls the UPCoM trading floor, around 50 businesses registered on UPCoM in the last two months of 2016. 

VNS