In its report to the National Assembly’s Economics Committee, expected to open on May 22, SBV said that it has got approval from competent agencies on the plan to handle commercial banks put under special control, including the three banks obliged to carry out buy-backs as part of banking system reform.

Under the plan, SBV will continue to conduct solutions to restructure the banks as per the instructions of competent agencies.

SBV has reported to agencies the solutions on restructuring the banks and the solution for each of them.

In the case of SCB, which was put under special control in October 2022, SBV said it is carrying out the overall appraisal of the bank’s situation to have the foundation for restructuring the bank.

To date, SCB’s operation has been stable, with no insecurity and social disorder cases in localities where SCB branches and transaction offices are located.

In Vietnam, the compulsory transfer of banks is a familiar concept to people. Prior to that, Ocean Bank, CB and DongA Bank were also compulsorily transferred to SBV at zero dong, thus, the banks were called ‘zero dong’. After that, SBV assigned some commercial banks with healthy financial situations to manage the ‘zero dong’ banks. 

At the 2023 shareholders’ meetings of some banks, the admission of one of the four ‘zero dong’ banks were put into discussion by shareholders.

The banks that may admit the banks could include Vietcombank, Military Bank, VP Bank and HDBank.

At Vietcombank’s shareholders’ meeting, the bank’s chair Pham Quang Dung said Vietcombank needs 8-10 years to handle the weak bank it is going to admit to turn the bank into a healthy credit institution with normal operations.

Meanwhile, Military Bank’s deputy CEO Pham Nhu Anh said his bank is carrying out the valuation of a bank to be admitted. The process is expected to last 11 months, which means that it would finish in early 2024 at the latest.

VPBank’s Chair Ngo Chi Dung said that VPBank is one of the four banks to participate in the program to restructure weak banks. 

HDBank submitted to the shareholders’ meeting the plan on reserving up to VND9 trillion for the bank to be transferred mandatorily. The weak bank will operate under the mode of one-member bank limited, where HDBank holds 100 percent of capital.

Duy Anh