HCMC – The central bank decided this evening to put the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) under special surveillance as the bank has been struggling with difficulties, particularly mass cash withdrawals by clients.
The decision is designed to stabilize the operations of SCB as the bank’s branches and transaction offices have been overwhelmed with clients who want to withdraw cash on suspicion that the bank has connection with Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, who was arrested late last week on alleged charges of corporate bond sale fraud and appropriation of others’ property in 2018 and 2019.
SCB has confirmed that Truong My Lan is not a shareholder and holds no leadership position at the bank.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said, “To stabilize SCB’s operations, the State Bank of Vietnam has decided to place this bank on special watch list. Under the prevailing regulations, this special surveillance is aimed at strictly monitoring the bank and minimize negative impact on this bank and the banking system as a whole.”
The SBV, the country’s central bank, will assign senior executives from State-owned commercial banks such as Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank and Agribank to run SCB.
