HCMC – The Government has directed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to submit transfer plans for GPBank and DongA Bank by December 20, as outlined in a recent government resolution.
These two banks are the last of Vietnam’s troubled financial institutions without finalized restructuring plans after nearly a decade of self-restructuring.
GPBank was acquired by the SBV at zero dong in 2015, while DongA Bank has been under special supervision since August 2015 due to serious financial and operational violations.
The Government has further urged the SBV to expedite a resolution for Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which has been under special supervision since October 2022.
Special supervision, as defined under Article 4 of the 2024 Law on Credit Institutions, allows the SBV to take direct control of financial institutions to mitigate risks and safeguard the banking system.
Finding suitable commercial banks to assume control of poor-performing banks has been a significant challenge. According to the SBV, the process depends heavily on voluntary participation and shareholder agreement, which often involves time-consuming negotiations, particularly with foreign strategic investors.
In October, two other weak banks, CBBank and OceanBank, were successfully transferred to Vietcombank and MB Bank. Private lenders such as VPBank and HDBank have also expressed interest in taking over struggling banks.
