Saigon Commercial Bank has new chairman

Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) announced Saturday 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.

Under the State Bank of Vietnam's (SBV) decision, the SCB's board of directors has four other new members, including Pham Quang Tien, Vo Van Buu, Trang Nhan Hau, and Ly Thanh Phuong.

Duc, 45, who replaced Bui Anh Dung, was previously director of Vietinbank in Ho Chi Minh City. He holds a master's degree in development economics.

Duc had held many positions at VietinBank like deputy head of the investment division, head of the capital markets division, board member of VietinBank Securities, and director of VietinBank's Hanoi-based Quang Trung branch.

The SBV has placed SCB under special control over stability concerns. In a release Saturday, it said that the move is a professional measure to strictly control and limit negative impacts on the private bank and the banking system.

The central bank will select and appoint qualified, capable and experienced personnel from state-owned commercial banks like Vietcombank, BIDV, Vietinbank, and Agribank to get involved in the corporate governance at SCB.

Vietcombank, BIDV, Vietinbank, and Agribank are “Big 4” banks. The first three have the state as majority shareholder, while the fourth is wholly state-owned.

Last Friday and Saturday morning, many SCB branches and transaction offices recorded a run on deposits due to concerns about the bank’s financial health.

The deposit withdrawals seemed to have been triggered by news of the sudden death of Nguyen Tien Thanh, chairman and CEO of Tan Viet Securities. Thanh, 49, was an independent board member of the Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered bank.

The SBV then released a statement confirming that “all deposits at local banks, including SCB, are guaranteed by the government no matter what.”

It recommended that depositors refrain from making withdrawals before the due date of term deposits in order to avoid the loss of interest.

SCB also clarified the arrest of Truong My Lan, chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Group, does not affect its business as she does not hold any executive role at the bank.

By mid last week, the SBV’s Ho Chi Minh City branch stated that the situation at SCB was more stable.