According to the report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment on economic restructuring, this agency said that in the past two years, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has promoted the restructuring of the system of credit institutions (CIs).

Notably, the State Bank of Vietnam is studying the proposal of some investors to participate in restructuring Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) to soon submit to the Government a plan to restructure this bank according to regulations.

There are currently 5 banks under special control, including CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank, DongABank and SCB.

In particular, SCB was put under special control from October 2022. In 2023, this bank stopped operating 39 branches and transaction offices nationwide. In 2024, SCB has just announced to continue to terminate the operations of 5 transaction offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

In addition, the State Bank has also submitted and received approval from competent authorities for the compulsory transfer policy for the remaining four banks including OceanBank, CBBank, GPBank and Dong A Bank.

Authorities are reviewing and preparing to approve the restructuring plan for these banks according to prescribed procedures.

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SCB is interested by many partners who want to participate in restructuring.

In fact, the restructuring of weak banks is behind schedule. The State Audit report on the audit results at the State Bank in 2023 shows that the plan to handle weak credit institutions is still slow, lasting for many years (from 2015 to present).

According to the State Audit, the extension of the processing progress has led to an increase in the expected resources for support through special lending forms due to the continuous losses in the business operations of these banks. It is expected that the total size of special loans of the four units (CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank and Dong A Bank) is VND 168,000 billion.

The State Audit report also stated that at the time of the audit (August 2023), the handling of 3 new compulsory purchase banks was at the stage of having the Government approve the compulsory transfer policy, and was in the stage of determining the enterprise value for compulsory transfer. 1 new bank had the Government approve the compulsory transfer policy.

The National Assembly Economic Committee's audit report commented that the process of handling weak banks encountered many difficulties in terms of legal framework and support mechanisms.

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong explained that the restructuring process of credit institutions is prolonged because finding and negotiating with commercial banks eligible to receive compulsory transfers is difficult because it depends largely on the voluntary participation of commercial banks and requires time to convince shareholders, especially major shareholders and foreign strategic shareholders, to agree to participate.

In addition, the policy mechanism and financial resources to handle weak credit institutions in general and to develop a plan for compulsory transfer of compulsory-purchase banks and DongA Bank in particular still have many shortcomings, obstacles and lengthy procedures. The coordination and consultation of relevant ministries and branches is still prolonged because the handling of weak banks is complicated and unprecedented.