The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in its report about the restructuring of the national economy, showed that SBV has been accelerating the restructuring of the banking system over the last two years.

There are five commercial banks under special control, namely CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank, DongABank and SCB.

Of these, SCB has been under special control since October 2022. In 2023, the bank shut down 39 branches and transaction points throughout the country. It has announced the closure of five more transaction points in HCM City and Da Nang this year.

In addition, SBV received approval for a proposal on compulsory transfer of the other four banks, OceanBank, CBBank, GPBank and DongABank. 

The restructuring of weak banks is behind schedule. A report from the State Audit about auditing at SBV in 2023 showed that the process has lasted since 2015.  

The tardiness has led to an increase in resources required to support restructuring through special lending because the banks continuously took losses. It is expected that special loans to the four banks (CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank and DongABank) total VND168 trillion.

The State Audit report showed that by the audit time (August 2023), the compulsory transfer of three banks had just received approval from the government and the enterprise valuation was carried out before the transfer. Meanwhile, the other bank had just got approval from the government.

Meanwhile, the report of the National Assembly’s Economics Committee showed that the handling of weak banks is facing difficulties in legal issues.

SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said the credit institution restructuring process hs gone slowly because it takes time to find institutions meeting requirements to admit the compulsorily transferred banks. It also takes time to negotiate with shareholders of the institutions to agree to accept the banks, especially foreign strategic shareholders.

There are also still shortcomings in policies, while financial resources to handle weak credit institutions still have many shortcomings. 

Meanwhile, relevant ministries and branches’ coordination in the process cannot be implemented in a harmonious way because there is no precedent for reference.

Truong My Lan, chair of Van Thinh Phat Group, has been accused of orchestrating SCB operations to embezzle $12.36 billion from the bank.

Before the arrest of Lan, from 2015 to 2022, SCB received 72 awards from domestic and foreign institutions for the best bank services in Vietnam.

Ngoc Cuong