Inspecting the acquisition, control, and granting of credit to VIP customers at banks this year

ANTD.VN - The State Bank has included in its 2023 inspection plan the inspection of the transfer of shares and stocks that could lead to the acquisition and control of large credit institutions; and the granting of credit to large customer groups.

Difficult to detect if major shareholders deliberately conceal

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said that in recent years, the agency has continued to improve the legal basis and resolutely implemented solutions to prevent and handle share ownership exceeding the prescribed limit, cross-ownership, lending, and illegal investment, along with the restructuring process of credit institutions.

Accordingly, the situation of share ownership exceeding the prescribed limit and cross-ownership in the credit institution system has been gradually handled, and the situation of large shareholders/groups of shareholders manipulating and dominating banks has been limited.

The number of pairs of credit institutions directly cross-owning each other has been resolved; shareholders, shareholders and related persons owning shares exceeding the prescribed limit mainly in corporations and state-owned enterprises need to continue to direct handling in order to focus capital on core business activities and use capital more effectively.

Meanwhile, the issue of credit institutions and their related persons contributing capital and purchasing shares in other credit institutions is still a matter of concern that may potentially pose risks. In recent times, along with state management, inspection and supervision, the State Bank has issued legal documents and directed credit institutions to address existing problems.

Therefore, this ownership situation has decreased significantly, overcoming the situation of a commercial bank's ownership of shares at another credit institution exceeding the prescribed ratio of over 5% of the voting capital of another credit institution, and the ownership of shares of a credit institution at another credit institution (one-way) has decreased.

Tình trạng sở hữu chéo tại các ngân hàng đã dần được khắc phục ảnh 1

Cross-ownership in banks has gradually been overcome.

According to the State Bank, although it mainly arose before the Law on Credit Institutions 2010 took effect, the situation of share ownership exceeding the prescribed limit and direct cross-ownership between credit institutions and between credit institutions and enterprises has gradually been resolved.

However, handling the issue of ownership exceeding the prescribed limit and cross-ownership is still difficult in cases where major shareholders and related persons of major shareholders intentionally conceal or ask other individuals/organizations to register their ownership shares to circumvent legal regulations, leading to the credit institution being controlled by these shareholders, potentially leading to the risk of operating without transparency and publicity.

Some credit institutions have a concentration of share ownership among a number of shareholders and related persons. Although this does not violate the provisions of the law, attention should be paid to prevent potential risks that may occur.

Will be inspected this year

According to the State Bank, there are a number of difficulties and problems leading to this situation. In particular, cross-ownership involves many entities under the management of ministries/sectors, while the State Bank's management entities are only credit institutions, so the State Bank does not have information or tools to control ownership between companies in other sectors.

At the same time, controlling cross-ownership between non-industry companies and banks is very difficult in cases where major shareholders and related persons of major shareholders intentionally conceal or ask other individuals/organizations to stand in their names to register the number of shares owned to circumvent legal regulations on cross-ownership/ownership exceeding the prescribed level or circumvent regulations on credit limits for related customer groups and share ownership ratios of shareholders and related persons.

“This leads to potential risks of credit institutions’ operations lacking transparency and openness. At the same time, this can only be detected and identified through investigation and verification by investigative agencies in accordance with the law,” said the State Bank.

In addition, the State Bank also said that the detection of relationships between enterprises is still limited because information to determine the ownership relationship of enterprises, especially enterprises that are not public companies, is very difficult. The State Bank cannot be proactive in looking up information as well as determining the accuracy and reliability of information sources; especially in the context of the rapidly developing stock market and technology as it is today.

In the coming time, the State Bank said it will continue to monitor the safety of credit institutions' operations and through inspections of capital, share ownership of credit institutions, lending, investment, capital contribution activities...

In case of detecting risks or violations, the State Bank shall direct credit institutions to handle existing problems to prevent risks. In cases where signs of crime are detected, the State Bank shall consider transferring the case to the police for investigation and clarification of violations of the law (if any) for handling to prevent risks.

At the same time, the State Bank has included in the 2023 inspection plan the inspection of the transfer of shares and stocks that could lead to the acquisition and control of credit institutions; granting credit to large customer groups (focusing on credit related to the real estate sector; major shareholders, related persons of major shareholders of credit institutions...).

The State Bank will also advise the Government to submit to the National Assembly amendments and supplements to the Law on Credit Institutions, including adding regulations to effectively handle the abuse of major shareholder rights, governance and management rights to manipulate the operations of credit institutions.

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