Two board members of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) have been suspended from their posts to facilitate a police probe into their alleged irregularities.

Huynh Nam Dung, who served as MHB chairman before MHB was merged into BIDV - PHOTO: TL

According to a statement which the bank sent to the State Securities Commission of Vietnam and the Hochiminh and Hanoi stock exchanges on January 29, Huynh Nam Dung and Nguyen Phuoc Hoa are no longer on the bank’s board.

They are being investigated over alleged wrongdoing at Mekong Housing Bank (MHB) and Mekong Housing Bank Securities Company (MHBS) before MHB was merged into BIDV eights months ago.

Dung served as MHB chairman and Hoa as general director. A number of MHBS employees have also been detained.

A representative of MHB said Dung and Hoa were detained due to their responsibilities at MHB and especially MHBS, not BIDV.

When MHB was merged into BIDV, MHB board members joined BIDV’s board. Dung and Hoa were assigned to solve the remaining problems faced by MHB and were not responsible for day-to-day operations at BIDV, the representative said.

Dung, who was born in Hanoi in 1956, studied at Illinois University in the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship and got Master’s degrees in economics and finance between 1993 and 1995.

Dung was a founder of MHB in 1997 and served as deputy general director of this bank later. He took the post of MHB chairman in 2002 and was re-elected in 2007.

Hoa used to work for the central bank’s Tay Ninh branch and was director of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in the same province. He became MHB board member and general director in 2000 and was re-elected general director in 2010.