Big bank "bosses" resign: What will happen?

Four big bosses of two banks ACB and Eximbank have just resigned. What is special is that these four people are all related to the 718 billion VND “case” of ACB.

4 big bosses resign due to ACB connection

In just one day, the market received news of the resignation of four big bosses at the banks currently in the "eye of the storm", namely Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank).

First, ACB announced that Mr. Tran Xuan Gia, Chairman of the Board of Directors, resigned due to health reasons, Mr. Le Vu Ky and Mr. Trinh Kim Quang - 2 Vice Chairmen of the Board of Directors resigned due to personal reasons. It is worth mentioning here that ACB also added that these people "were involved in approving Mr. Ly Xuan Hai to authorize 19 ACB employees to receive VND 718 billion from ACB to deposit in the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade".

Not long after that, Eximbank also announced that Mr. Pham Trung Cang - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of EIB had submitted his resignation since September 19, 2012. In his handwritten resignation letter, Mr. Cang stated that the reason for his resignation was "personal matters".

Eximbank said that Mr. Cang is the representative of the capital contribution for the ACB shareholder group at Eximbank. According to Eximbank, this shareholder group currently holds about 7-8% of Eximbank's shares. The members of Eximbank's Board of Directors have agreed on Mr. Cang's resignation and are sending a document waiting for the State Bank's approval.

Speaking about this incident, Mr. Le Hung Dung - Chairman of Eximbank, said that the reason could be because Mr. Cang was involved in some responsibilities during the period when he was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB).

Mr. Dung affirmed that Mr. Cang's resignation, if it affects the operations and management of Eximbank, is only a small, insignificant part. However, there is information that this incident may be related to the case of Ms. Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, which the authorities have officially prosecuted since October 2011 and are still continuing to investigate. The total initial loss of this case announced by the authorities is up to 4,600 billion VND.

This information has caused many investors to worry. This concern is completely justified because previously, right after submitting his resignation letter, former ACB General Director Ly Xuan Hai was… arrested.

Does it cause a stir?

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a financial expert, said that the simultaneous resignation of four big bosses of two banks has attracted public attention. However, according to Mr. Hieu, this issue needs to be considered from many angles.

First, from an organizational perspective, it is very normal for banks to change leadership. It is just like any organization changing leadership.

Recently, 3 ACB leaders and 1 Eximbank leader resigned. Obviously, the fact that 4 big bank leaders "resigned together" is unusual, according to Mr. Hieu. However, Mr. Hieu affirmed that this is not a sign that the bank is in crisis or facing difficulties.

The biggest impact is that the change in senior leadership could cause some of the bank's plans to change.

From the customer's perspective, there is not much to worry about because Mr. Hieu believes that this issue does not have much impact on the bank's liquidity or operational efficiency.

Previously, after Mr. Ly Xuan Hai, former General Director of ACB Bank and Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien (Bau Kien), former Vice Chairman of ACB Founding Council were arrested, the bank's operations were more or less affected. People came to ACB to withdraw money a lot.

According to Mr. Hieu, the shock was only temporary. The situation stabilized very quickly, the phenomenon of mass withdrawals no longer existed. Liquidity was stable. But in this case, the situation would not be that bad. Mr. Hieu said that the above individuals may have been involved in some transaction but the liquidity of the banks would not be affected.

Mr. Hieu affirmed that, from the perspective of depositors, he did not see any signs of concern even though everyone was initially paying attention. Therefore, the event of the resignation of major bank executives did not cause shock or difficulty for banks in particular and the banking system in general.

According to Mr. Hieu, there is certainly a lot of information and rumors out there related to some transactions of big bosses, although at this time the official reasons given are still only personal and health reasons. Mr. Hieu advises investors to wait for real information and not listen to rumors.

Mr. Hieu said: “Of course, there are many rumors about the movements of the related credit institutions because “there is no smoke without fire”. But in business, even though you have to listen, you should not rely on rumors.” He said that if he were an ACB customer, he would have a calmer attitude than running to withdraw money.

According to VTCNews. (PH)