It is undeniable that major shareholders have contributed to Eximbank, especially shareholder Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) after pouring in 225 million USD in 2007 to own 15% of Eximbank's shares. The presence of Japan's leading financial group has helped Eximbank quickly rise to the top of the private joint-stock commercial banks in terms of profit in the period 2010-2011.

However, a strong brand like Eximbank quickly weakened after cracks in the Board of Directors, leading to the bank missing the restructuring process and being increasingly left behind by competitors in all aspects, causing small shareholders as well as customers to feel heartbroken.

After Mr. Le Hung Dung withdrew from the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2015, Eximbank continuously changed its Chairman. Each time the Chairman of the Board of Directors changed, there was an uncompromising battle between shareholder groups.

The high-level personnel changes since Mr. Le Minh Quoc took the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors for the 2015-2020 term have lasted for many years without any end in sight, as major shareholders have not found a common voice.

In 2016, Eximbank was unable to hold its annual general meeting of shareholders due to disagreement on whether the number of board members should be 9 or 11.

The main reason why the General Meeting of Shareholders could not take place as planned was that the representatives of two major shareholder groups holding more than 20% of shares, Ms. Nguyen Thi Xuan Loan (representing Nam A Bank) and Mr. Pham Huu Phuong, were not approved to be added to the list of candidates for the Board of Directors. This incident forced the State Bank to request a review of some information related to the candidates nominated for the new phase of the Bank's Board of Directors.

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2019 was the peak time of the dispute over the bank chairmanship, or more precisely, the power dispute between major shareholder groups.

Specifically, on March 22, 2019, Eximbank's Board of Directors issued Resolution 112 to elect Ms. Luong Thi Cam Tu as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and remove Mr. Le Minh Quoc from his position. However, Mr. Le Minh Quoc sued the members of the Board of Directors, requesting the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court to apply temporary emergency measures.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court approved it, but in May 2019, it was annulled. Ms. Luong Thi Cam Tu continued to be the Chairwoman of Eximbank according to Resolution 112. However, just one day later, on May 15, 2019, Mr. Le Minh Quoc continued to be the person who signed Resolution 231 to terminate the validity of Resolution 112, electing Ms. Tu as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors.

He then resigned and Mr. Cao Xuan Ninh became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximbank since May 22, 2019.

More than a month later, Mr. Ninh resigned again, citing the long-standing conflicts between shareholder groups and Eximbank shareholders that could not be resolved.

Replacing Mr. Cao Xuan Ninh is Mr. Yasuhiro Saitoh. Previously, in 2015, SMBC nominated Mr. Yasuhiro Saitoh to join the Board of Directors, but in May 2019, SMBC sent a notice to Eximbank confirming that, from May 18, 2019, Mr. Yasuhiro Saitoh is not a representative of SMBC.

The power struggles here seem to have no end. On the eve of the 2021 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Eximbank surprised everyone by unexpectedly issuing two resolutions in one day to dismiss the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and then re-electing the person who had just been dismissed. Surprisingly, these two conflicting resolutions were based on the voting results at the Board of Directors meeting and were only 25 minutes apart.

By 2022, two days after the 2021 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (previously postponed due to Covid-19 and disagreements), Eximbank elected Ms. Luong Thi Cam Tu as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for the 7th term (2020-2025) to replace Mr. Yasuhiro Saitoh. Immediately after that, the Board of Directors faced pressure to explain to shareholders the transfer of STB shares below the minimum price of VND 13,000/share, leading to a decrease in Eximbank's income.

Eximbank holds the record for the number of changes in the Board of Directors' chairman and the number of cancellations/postponements of the General Meeting of Shareholders in the past 10 years.

Among them, there are presidents who only hold the hot seat for less than half an hour, while others have been in the hot seat for 5 days.

The lack of stability and solidarity in the Board of Directors causes the bank to suffer many disadvantages because it misses many opportunities for development, along with losses for small shareholders when they do not receive dividends for many years.

The instability that has hindered Eximbank’s development for many years is not commensurate with the potential that this bank possesses. What shareholders expect is stability from the top and breakthrough development strategies, which can come right from the bank’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on November 28.