SBV issues plan to restructure commercial banks

Nine weak commercial banks are targets.

The State Bank of Vietnam has submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung plans to restructure nine commercial joint banks it classified as weak.

Three of these weak banks, Tin Nghia Bank, Ficombank and Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, were merged in 2011.

Hanoi Building Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Habubank) was merged with SHB, formally Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank, last year.

Westernbank will soon be merged with PetroVietnam Finance Corporation.

Trustbank has sold a majority stake to a group of local investors and adopted the new name of Vietnam Construction Bank.

Dai A Bank has planned to merger with HDBank. Navibank has its own restructuring plan. Only GP Bank has not made any move.

The central bank said a number of weak credit institutions had not been handled properly, especially some commercial banks and non-bank credit institutions.

An SBV report said the banking restructuring process was inefficient. The legal framework for treating weak credit institutions is still lacking heavy sanctions and compulsory measures.