Commercial banks finalising senior personnel line-up

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This April, HDBank appointed its new board of directors with nine members, two of which are independent members, and the board of supervisors with three members. The appointment of HDBank’s board of directors and supervisors was passed by an overwhelming approval from shareholders.

In the shareholders’ meeting on April 2017, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) elected seven members for its board of directors and four members for its board of supervisors for 2017-2022. Meanwhile, SCB’s shareholders re-elected Vo Tan Hoang Van as the general director in the new term.

Of the nine board members at HDBank, seven were nominated by shareholders and two by the board of directors and supervisors. In particular, HDBank elected two new members to its board of directors. Ly Vinh Quang was senior staff in Techcombank, BacABank, ABBank, and HDBank, and Nguyen Thanh Do used to be an official at the Ministry of Finance.

On April 21, the Eximbank shareholders’ meeting was held successfully, although some issues mentioned in the initial plan were not discussed. These included Eximbank’s divestment from Sacombank, retrieving the excess renumeration of the previous board of directors, and dismissing Cao Xuan Ninh, who was appointed to the board for the period from 2015 to 2020.

The Eximbank shareholders’ meeting in 2017 surpassed expectations, especially in terms of the senior personnel issue, an unsolved problem of many previous meetings. Now, the bank’s senior personnel are stable and the banks’s operations have been getting better as a result.

The meeting did not add three more board members as initially planned, instead, the old list of candidates, including Cao Xuan Ninh, was retained. At the same time, Yutaka Moriwaki was also elected to replace a previous board member representing the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) group of shareholders, who currently hold 10.05 per cent of Eximbank’s voting shares.

According to the vote results, Moriwaki was elected with 52.22 per cent approval. The documents Eximbank showed on April 20 indicated that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had approved the election. Currently, Moriwaki is a deputy general director cum restructuring and strategy project manager of Eximbank (the New Eximbank project).

Besides senior personnel, there were many unsolved problems, including debts collection in accordance with the inspection and conclusions of SBV. Eximbank is required to completely solve these problems soon.

According to Eximbank’s audited consolidated financial statement on December 31, 2016, the bank reported an accumulated loss of over VND461 billion ($20.3 million). Thus, in compliance with Eximbank’s charter, it did not distribute dividends in the fiscal year 2016. Meanwhile, shareholders requested Eximbank to retrieve the excess of remuneration for the old board of directors and supervisors paid out during the period of 2013-2015).

The excess VND52 billion ($2.3 million) was expected to cover a part of the accumulated loss in 2016. Eximbank’s board of directors proposed to spend VND10 billion ($440,000) on paying for the board members, but this proposal was rejected and the authorised agencies required the bank to retrieve all the excess payments.

At BIDV, initially, it was expected that a new chairman will be introduced at the 2017 shareholders’ meeting after Tran Bac Ha’s retirement on April 2016, but a new chairman was not named. The new boards of directors and supervisors of BIDV are as follows:

People are waiting for Sacombank to finalise the line-up of its senior personnel. The released resolution of the board of directors about the list of candidates for the board of directors and supervisors in 2017-2021 has shown an unusual abundance in potential candidates, making it harder for shareholders to decide on the most appropriate board members.

Besides the familiar candidates who are current leaders of Sacombank like chairman Kieu Huu Dung, vice-chairman Nguyen Mien Tuan, Nguyen Van Cuu or Nguyen Xuan Vu, there are two additional candidates nominated as independent board members: Nguyen Duc Huong and Nguyen Thi Bich Hong, both of whom are involved with LienVietPostBank. Nguyen Duc Huong is especially highly regarded by shareholders.

The list of candidates for Sacombank’s board of supervisors in the new period of 2017-2021 consists of Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Le Van Tong, Ha Ton Minh Hanh, and Tran Van Triet. Sacombank will hold its shareholders’ meeting on May 26, instead of April 28 as earlier planned, because it has not completed the lists of candidates for the board of directors and supervisors in the new term.