It is expected that in 2018, the wave of high-level personnel will continue and will be even stronger than the previous years.
The revised Law on credit organisations that took effect from January 15, 2018 asks Chair, member of the board of directors, general director of a credit institution not to hold the same position in another business. This regulation causes many bankers to choose whether to stay at the bank or switch to a business. Many bank leaders are in the situation, but until now, although the law has come into effect, only few people officially made their choice, such as Duong Cong Minh (Sacombank), Do Quang Hien (SHB), Do Minh Phu (TPBank) or Thai Huong (BacABank), etc. while many people such as in Kienlongbank, Techcombank, SeABank, ABBank, HDBank, VietA, etc. are still holding positions in both places.
Leaders of credit institution said they would abide by the rules and make the most appropriate choices. However, according to observers, the compliance must be postponed for some more time; the earliest possible time will be the annual shareholders’ meeting in March-April this year. Therefore, in the near future, there will have a strong movement of personnel in banks that are entangled in this regulation.
Right from the beginning of 2018, many banks have planned to hold the shareholders’ meeting, of which many banks chose March as the time for meeting, instead of the end of April as in previous years. And in this year’s meeting season, many banks will decide the important issuepersonnel for the next five years.
First, LienVietPostBank will hold the general meeting on March 28 in HCM City. The Bank will change the Board of directors and Control Board for the new term of 2018-2023. According to the resolution of the Board of directors, eight members for the Board of directors and three members of the Control Board will be selected for the new term. Currently, Nguyen Duc Huong is also the bank’s Chair while Son is the general director cum Standing vice Chair and Tran Thanh Tung is the Head of the Control Board.
PVcomBank has not announced the shareholders’ meeting plan for this year, but 2018 is also the time when the bank enters its new term. The current Chair of the bank is Nguyen Dinh Lam, the head of the control board is Bui Thanh Huong and the general director is Nguyen Hoang Nam.
This year, BacABank also enters the new term and the bank has consulted shareholders about the plan to elect the Board of directors and the Control Board with the intention of having five board membersthe minimum level and three members of the Control Board. In the current term, the bank has five board members with Tran Thi Thoang as the bank’s chair and Thai Huong as the vice Chair cum general director. The head of the Supervisory Board is Pham Hong Cong.
ACB also holds its shareholders’ meeting this year to elect its management board for 2018-2023 terms. At present, the bank has completed the nomination and self-nomination list. The current chair is Tran Hung Huy, Head of Control Board is Huynh Nghia Hiep and general director is Do Minh Toan.
Another bank, Kienlongbank, is also re-electing the board of directors and the control board for the term 2018-2022. At this time, the bank plans to collect shareholders’ opinions and will hold a meeting in April. The current chair is Vo Quoc Thang, the vice Chair cum general director is Vo Van Chau and the Head of the Control Board is Le Khac Gia Bao.
In addition, some banks have not yet reached the time to change the Board of directors and Control Board, but in this general meeting season, they will also elect additional staff. For example, the Military Bank plans to hold a shareholders’ meeting on March 29, 2018, with the additional election of one member to the Control Board for the term 2014-2019. Eximbank will also additionally elect two members to the Board of directors for the term 2015-2020 held on April 27. Meanwhile, VIB, after the two members of the board of directors from the strategic partner CBA resigned, the bank will elect two replacement members at the meeting held at the end of the upcoming March.
Apart from personnel elected by shareholders, the bank management board in the near future is expected to have many periodical changes due to the end of appointment time. Typically, the posts of general director or deputy general director of a bank will have tenure of five years. After the end of the contract, some banks will reappoint, but some others will not. For instance, at the end of January, ACB has just re-appointed four deputy general directors including Nguyen Duc Thai, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Van, Tu Tien Phat and Bui Tan Tai, and newly appointed a deputy i.e. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Uyen.
Starting the wave of changes in senior bank management positions is ABBank. On January 12, 2018, the bank announced that Cu Anh Tuan was relieved of his post as CEO for personal reasons after nearly two years running the bank. Nguyen Manh Quandeputy general director was assigned with the duties and powers as the general director. Cu Anh Tuan was an old member of Techcombank, appointed as deputy general director of ABBank from April 2014 and by May 2015, he held the position of general director after Pham Duy Hieu resigned from his post.
Just before the Lunar New Year holiday, SeABank announced that Nguyen Canh Vinh was relieved of his post as CEO for personal reasons after over four months taking over the hot seat. Prior to that, Vinh was the deputy general director of Techcombank, in charge of retail segment. The operation was handed over to Le Van Tandeputy general director.
At BIDV, after the bank’s chair Tran Bac Ha retired in September 2016, the 17 months have passed but the bank has not yet had a new chair. Many predicted that in this year’s annual general meeting, a new person will take on the hottest seat in the Vietnam’s largest bank. Among the candidates, a person that has drawn the attention of the market is Pham Quang Tungformer chair of the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) who was re-mobilised to BIDV in December 2017.
Besides the chairmanship, at BIDV, this year’s AGM is likely to elect additional board members when Tran Anh Tuanwho is in charge of the Board since the retirement of Tran Bac Haalso reached the retirement age.
With the exception of BIDV, LienVietPostBank is likely to be the first bank to change its chairmanship this year. Although 2018 is also the time when the bank enters its new term, unlike many other banks, which retain old people on the list of nominees to continue assuming the same responsibilities in the new term, Nguyen Duc Huong, Chair of the Board of directors, indirectly announced his resignation after less than a year replacing the hot seat of Duong Cong Minh. Huong’s reason was his health problem. He had been on medical treatment for more than three months, and decided to retire to concentrate on his health.
In other roles, from the beginning of the year, many banks have also shifted senior management positions from director position to deputy general director position. For instance, ACB newly appointed a female deputy general director, HDBank chosen Nguyen Thanh Phuong as deputy general director in charge of the northern region from January 22, 2018, National Bank of Vietnam (NCB) selected Nguyen The Hiep to be deputy general director from the beginning of February.
An expert that is advising a reputable joint stock commercial bank said the change of senior staff at banks is unavoidable. Apart to the force majeure replacement, i.e. either by appointment or retirement, the selection of personnel, especially for the posts of general manager or deputy general director, will be subject to careful consideration by the Board. The bank bosses will have to carefully consider each appointment position in order to benefit themselves as well as other shareholders, apart from fitting the orientation of the bank. Besides, the business “taste” of bank bosses can also change and then find the right person must also be chosen.
Another bank leader shared, the wave of changes in senior bank personnel is not a big deal since most of the executive positions are hired, so if they feel suitable, they will do, otherwise they will change. “Choosing the right person is not easy, so they (the bank bosses) are still looking for the right person, but qualified senior personnel of the industry are not many, so that mutual search leads to another story that is the shift of leaders from this bank to another bank.
Also according to the leader of the aforementioned bank, it is entirely not easy to solve the problem of high-level personnel of the banking industry and it also cannot be done overnight. It takes time and there needs to have a process of training, identifying talents in the right way. Only by doing so, the succession generations of 6X, 7X leaders will be able to escape the current cycle, and the banks themselves are better prepared in personnel in line with the strategy they develop.
