Many large banks will hold election for Board of directors and Supervisory Board for the new term in the annual general Meeting of Shareholders. In other banks, although the current term has not yet terminated, high-level personnel changes have also become the focus of attention.
The story of senior personnel at banks is becoming the ‘hot topic’ of the annual shareholders’ meeting in 2019. In many banks, Board of directors (BOD) and the Supervisory Board will be elected for the new term in the upcoming meetings, most of which will take place from the end of March until May.
Nam A Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Nam A Bank) and Vietnam International Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VIB) are the two banks that started the meeting season this year. In this morning (March 28), VIB has approved the list of members of the eighth BOD with seven people, including six regular members and one independent member. The BOD of the new term includes Dang Khac Vy (current Chair), Dang Van Son, Do Xuan Hoang, Han Ngoc Vu (General director), Michael John Murphy, Timothy Ian Oldham and Nguyen Viet Cuong (independent director).
Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) has just announced a list of candidates for the new BOD of 2019-2024 with eight people, including Ho Hung Anh, Nguyen Dang Quang, Nguyen Thieu Quang, Nguyen Canh Son, Do Tuan Anh, Lee Boon Huat, Saurabh Narayan Agarwal, and Nguyen Nhan Nghia (candidate for independent director position).
In the list above, Saurabh Narayan Agarwal and Nguyen Nhan Nghia are new candidates and Nguyen Doan Hung, the current independent director of Techcombank, is not in the list. Notably, Saurabh Narayan Agarwal is currently the director (financial and management consultant) of Warburg Pincus New York, USA and Singapore; and Nguyen Nhan Nghia used to work at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).
Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank of Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) plans to hold the general Meeting of Shareholders on April 23. One of the important content submitted to the meeting is the personnel for the 2019-2024 term. In 2018, the bank had fluctuations in senior personnel after Nguyen Van Thang was transferred to be the vice Chair of Quang Ninh People’s Committee. Le Duc Tho became Chair and the bank appointed the new general director, Tran Minh Binh.
Military Joint Stock Commercial Bank (MB) will also elect the BOD and Supervisory Board for the new term of 2019-2024 at the upcoming meeting. Currently, MB’s Chair is Le Huu Duc, two vice Presidents are Luu Trung Thai (CEO) and Le Cong. The number of members of the BOD for the new term is expected to be 11, including one independent director.
Another large bank that had a change in the BOD and Supervisory Board was Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), where two members of the BOD and two members of the Supervisory Board resigned for personal reasons. The bank will elect two additional members of the BOD and two new members of the Supervisory Board at the upcoming general meeting of shareholders. Currently, SCB’s Chair is Dinh Van Thanh; three vice Presidents are Chiem Minh Dung, Henry Sun Ka Ziang, and Ta Chieu Trung; and three other Board members.
In the recent announcement, Saigon Bank for Industry & Trade (SGB) also said that one of the important contents at the 2019 AGM is the election of the BOD and Supervisory Board for the term of 2019-2024.
The issue of senior personnel is also a hot spot in Vietnam Joint Stock Export Import Bank (Eximbank), although the current term has not ended. At last annual general meeting, many shareholders questioned Eximbank’s management about the fact that it has not pay dividends for many years and let many customers lose money, and asked the general director Le Van whether he wanted to resign. Quyet then replied that he once expressed his wish that the Board should find a more suitable person for his position.
The change at Eximbank was expected to be in Management Board but it in fact happened in the bank’s highest position, Chair of the BOD. Recently, Eximbank suddenly announced that its shareholders agreed to vote for the new Chair, Luong Thi Cam Tu, who was elected to the Board in the 2018 general Meeting of Shareholders and was the former CEO at Nam A Bank. This decision has caused lots of surprises, especially after Le Minh Quoc, the former Chair of the Board, accused the bank of dismissing his position against the law. On the other hand, Eximbank always confirmed that the election of the new chairperson was in accordance with the legal process and was reported to the SBV.
In fact, the personnel at Eximbank has always been changing in recent years. Previously, in 2017, this bank also cut down eight deputy general directors with the reason for streamlining its management to improve the performance of the ‘New Eximbank’ project.
In addition to the above fluctuations, observers believe that, besides the elections at the general Meeting of Shareholders, the Board of Management of many banks have also changed in recent times and are forecasted to change in the near future, especially in April.
Since the beginning of the year, many banks have appointed additional deputy general directors. For example, in January, the BOD of Saigon-Hanoi Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SHB) appointed Hoang Thi Mai Thao as the deputy general director cum Head of Retail Banking Division.
National Citizen Bank (NCB) appointed Nguyen Dinh Tuan as the deputy general director on January 26; LienViet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Lienviet Post Bank) terminated labour contract with Nguyen Thu Hoa and appointed Vu Thu Hien to hold the position of deputy general director and Head of Strategic Customer Division from March 1.
