The CEO helped NCB make a lot of progress in a short period of time.
When choosing a leader, every bank must carefully consider who they hire because it will directly affect its current and future development.
Many new faces appearing
Because of the strong restructuring that’s been happening over the last five years, there have been many new faces popping up at high-level positions in banks. In the second half of 2017 and early 2018, the banking sector continued to see high-level personnel changes and new CEOs were being appointed to stimulate the market.
There are many reasons for this movement. It’s easy to see that the banking sector itself is thriving, promising a more sustainable development cycle that requires high quality human resources that are capable of managing and operating adequately.
The banking sector in Vietnam has been becoming more and more integrated. The wave of foreign investors seeking investment opportunities also poses a relatively high demand for CEOs. Accordingly, leaders have to have a modern management style in accordance with international practice and the ability to work in a multicultural environment.
A financial expert stated that in the current context, banks are in the process of changing their business strategies, especially during the critical periods of capital raising, mergers and acquisitions. They always want to add more talent to management, especially for the position of general director. “As with the Basel II roadmap, many banks will soon have the best resources, personnel to meet the rigorous regulations, and higher standards,” an expert said.
No matter what the cause of human resource fluctuations is, observers still believe that personnel changes are expected to help banks move into a more stable and productive era for banks.
“Try before you trust”
Human resources, especially senior staff, is one of the issues that banks tend to prioritise. This is also the reason why banks, when choosing a leader, are always focused on finding capable personnel who have a deep understanding of internal culture, enthusiasm and influence on the system with the aim of bringing a new picture to the bank.
In 2017 and early 2018, a number of banks changed their CEOs such as Seabank, Sacombank, Techcombank, Nam A Bank, and PVComBank. NCB is a great example of how changing one’s CEO can make a positive difference. NCB appointed Le Hong Phuong as general director after a long time without having a general director while NCB was entering the final stage of negotiations with foreign strategic partners.
According to NCB, this was one of the strategic steps of the bank’s new development phase to realise the goal of seeking foreign strategic partners. Increasing financial capacity has made NCB an effective retail bank, leading the way in the application of digital technology and making a difference using a professional financial consulting model.
NCB has been attracting domestic and international investors due to the stability of the economy, the flourishing performance of the banking industry in general, and the support of state management agencies.
It may be worth mentioning that the foreign strategic shareholder seeking cooperation with NCB signed with its international advisory partner in early 2017. Before becoming CEO, Le Hong Phuong, was the person directly operating this project. After a short period NCB attracted many interested international investors.
This project came close to finalisation when NCB set the deadline to June 30. NCB also reported to the State Bank and put this plan into restructuring and banking development to 2020 to submit to the State management agencies for approval.
In terms of business activity over the years, NCB, under the guidance of the new CEO has made a great breakthrough in a short time. In the year 2017, the bank recorded positive business results in most of the indicators.
Boom engagement
According to financial report data, in the year 2017, NCB’s lending and mobilisation from customers continued to maintain higher growth than the market average, particularly when the total mobilisation reached VND1.11 trillion ($48.7 million), an increase of 20 per cent year-on-year and VND24 trillion ($1 billion), up 20 per cent year-on-year over the same period, before-tax-profit doubled compared 2016.
The results of business growth in 2017 continue to affirm the trust of customers with NCB and maintain the third consecutive year to receive the Vietnam Excellent Brand and many prestigious domestic and international awards.
It must be added that, in the context of integration and competition, the trend is finding foreign partners with financial strength, advanced technology and human resource management experience, and risk management. It’s not just NCB. Some banks such as VPBank, LienVietPostBank, and OceanBank attracted foreign partners. Previously, there was no shortage of examples of banks with outstanding growth after foreign partners joined the apparatus such as with TPBank, or formerly Vietcombank, Vietinbank or Techcombank.
Along with the financial results of the whole system, when the participation of foreign strategic partners is approved, it will certainly be one of motivations in the future for the banking industry in general and the future of NCB in particular.
vneconomictimes.com/article/banking-finance/ncb-to-strengthen-human-resources-prepare-to-welcome-foreign-capital-flows
