Despite not announcing financial statements for more than four years, Dong A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (DongABank) still occasionally discloses its business performance.
DongABank said that on September 26th, it will close the list of shareholders who have the right to attend the extraordinary shareholders meeting in 2019. The content of the meeting has not been disclosed, but observers expect that this will be a new turning point for DongABank because it is the bank’s first shareholders meeting since 2015.
The last time DongABank held an annual shareholders meeting was July 2015. A month later, it was put under special control by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
Responding to the press in the past, leader of the SBV HCM City branch said that the agency is submitting the government for approval of the scheme of restructuring DongABank under various plans.
Previously, in August 2015, DongABank was put under special control. In 2016, the bank’s former general director Tran Phuong Binh was arrested for involving in the case of Phan Van Anh.
After being put under special control, all of DongABank’s shareholders are not allowed to transfer shares of the bank’s shares. In special cases, the SBV will consider transferring shares upon the proposal of the Special Control Board. The bank has also refunded the money shareholders paid during the bank’s charter capital increase from five trillion dong to six trillion dong.
In the shareholder structure, as of early 2015, 100 percent of the bank’s shareholders were domestic ones. In particular, the legal shareholders including HCM City Party Committee Office (owner of 6.9 percent of charter capital), Phu Nhuan Jewellery company (owner of 7.7 percent of charter capital), Bac Nam 79 Construction Joint Stock Company (of Phan Van Anh, owner of 10 percent of charter capital), etc.
Individual shareholders include Tran Phuong Binh, his wife Cao Thi Ngoc Dung and their three daughters Tran Phuong Ngoc Thao, Tran Phuong Ngoc Giao and Tran Phuong Ngoc Ha. They are owning a total of 9.62 percent of the bank’s shares. Dung’s sister Cao Thi Ngoc Hong is the legal representative of An Binh Capital Joint Stock Company another major shareholder owning 5.4 percent of DongABank’s shares.
In total, Binh and related persons are holding 22.72 percent stake of DongABank.
When Binh’s case of abusing position and power to appropriate property at DongABank is brought to trial, the bank’s personnel has begun to see major changes. Currently, the key leaders of the bank are mostly new personnel, many of whom are assigned by the SBV. The bank’s Chair of the Board of directors is Vo Minh Tuan, and its general director is Nguyen Thanh Tung.
Since 2015 until now, DongABank has not released any financial statement, information about its business activities was mainly announced at summarising conferences and in press releases, mainly on mobilisation growth, liquidity status and debt collection. The indicators of profit, credit growth, etc. were hardly mentioned.
In the latest press release, DongABank said that closing the first six months of the year, the bank’s capital mobilise from customers reached 63.450 trillion dong, up by 2.595 trillion dong, equivalent to an increase of 4.3 percent compared to the beginning of the year; and up by 1.730 trillion dong, equivalent to an increase of three percent compared to the same period of 2018. Specifically, customers’ savings deposits reached 50.903 trillion dong, equivalent to an increase of 4.8 percent compared to the beginning of 2019.
Compared to the more than 77.5 trillion dong of customer deposits recorded in the end of 2014, it can be seen that over the last four years, DongABank has faced numerous difficulties.
According to DongABank, its service income in the first half of 2019 reached 247 billion dong, equivalent to the same period of last year. Meanwhile, the profit from foreign exchange trading increased by 16 billion dong, equivalent to an increase of 40 percent compared to the same period of last year. The profit from remittance activities continued to record high results, contributing to diversifying DongABank’s revenue.
In the first six months of 2019, the bank’s collection of bad debts reached 1.870 trillion dong, including both principal and interests. From August 2015 to June 2019, the bank has collected 16.350 trillion dong. The bank’s ratios of payment have always met the requirements and regulations of the SBV, including liquidity reserve ratio of 20.78%, the foreign currency solvency ratio of 77.98%, and dong solvency ratio of 83.77%.
As reported, DongABank’s workforce has reached 3,600 people with a network of 56 branches, 156 transaction offices across 44 provinces and cities nationwide.
