OceanBank welcomes new CEO

The State Bank of Vietnam has appointed Tran Trung Dung a board member and CEO of OceanBank, which the central bank acquired for zero Vietnamese dong seven years ago.

Previously, Dung was deputy director of VietinBank's Hoang Mai Branch in Hanoi. In May 2015, he was appointed deputy CEO of OceanBank after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) acquired the financially-troubled OceanBank for zero dong.

Vietinbank, a "Big 4" bank in Vietnam, has the state as majority shareholder.

Back then, the SBV said OceanBank had revealed many weaknesses in its operations, and its governance and management had seriously violated legal provisions. To control risks and minimize the loss of bank assets, the SBV decided to put OceanBank under special control in accordance with the law.

By the end of 2019, OceanBank recorded an accumulated loss exceeding VND17,900 billion ($742.3 million). The bank has seen its accumulated loss decline continuously in recent years, with 2021 being its lowest year of loss since 2016.

OceanBank may later be transferred to another bank. Most recently, leaders of MB Bank appeared at a conference to deploy OceanBank's business mission this year and spoke about "the cooperation between both sides".

Under the SBV's direction, MB Bank will discuss with OceanBank's leaders a suitable program for future operations.

Military-run Viettel Group and State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) are the two biggest shareholders of MB Bank, holding a 14.14% stake and 9.42% stake, respectively. The state ownership at the bank is 32.42%.

In September 2017 and May 2018, in the case of paying interest outside contracts, causing damage of VND1,500 billion ($60.39 million), at two levels of trial, former OceanBank chairman Ha Van Tham was sentenced to life in prison.

In early 2020, he was sentenced to another 15 years in prison for violating regulations on lending, causing damage to OceanBank of VND91 billion ($3.66 million).

In April 2020, he received another 10 years in prison for masterminding interest payments outside the contracts, causing more than VND106 billion ($4.27 million) in damage to OceanBank.

In October this year, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) announced the appointment of Vu Anh Duc as its new chairman and legal representative, after the private bank was put under special control by the central bank.

Duc, 45, who replaced Bui Anh Dung, was previously director of Vietinbank in Ho Chi Minh City.

Prior to that, the central bank had placed SCB under special control over stability concerns. In a release, the SBV said that the move was a professional measure to strictly control and limit negative impacts on the private bank and the banking system.