Agribank opens first bank treasury

With more than 30,000 branches, Agribank wants a single hub for foreign exchange

Previously, Agribank’s capital and foreign exchange activities were handled at its individual branches.
Now, the branches will supply all information on their capital and forex dealings to managers at the new centre.
“We are sure that with the new centre, the flow of capital within our bank’s networks will be controlled more efficiently.
“We will use this increased efficiency to increase the liquidity and profitability of temporarily idle money,” Agribank general director Le Van So said last week.
The centre will handle four key activities in the foreign exchange market: correspondent banking, foreign cash reconciling, capital trading and forex dealing.
However, the centre’s new vice manager, Ha Dan Huan, told Vietnam Investment Review the main function of the centre for the time being would only be to develop and manage the foreign cash reconciling system for the whole network.
“With the advantage of the bank’s extensive branch network, the centre enables commercial banks, financial companies and overseas remittance agencies to withdraw or deposit foreign cash in local areas in a swift and convenient way.”
Huan said that in several months the centre would also begin trading capital and forex.
The State Bank welcomed the establishment of the centre and said it was a step forward for the reform of the banking sector.
“Asset and liabilities management, and treasury activities are an extremely sophisticated process but essential to achieving the sustainable development of each bank,” said Kieu Huu Dung, director of banking and credit institution development at the State Bank.
“With more than 30,000 branches nationwide, it is high time for Agribank to set up a single hub for its foreign exchange activities instead of handling it separately at its branches.”
Dung said no other commercial Vietnamese bank had such a centre.
“In reality, all the commercial banks have so-called capital management departments, but their function is purely to oversee capital inflow and outflow, not to trade idle capital or make analyses and forecasts on the daily fluctuations of the capital market.
“The allocation of idle capital is decided by the various departments that oversee foreign currency credit, local currency credit and capital planning.
“This greatly limits the efficient use of capital,” Dung said.