Headquarters of Saigon Commercial Bank in HCM City’s District 1. The State Bank of Vietnam is currently looking for potential investors to acquire Saigon Commercial Bank. — VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp

HCM CITY — The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is looking for potential investors to acquire Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which is currently facing financial difficulties.

Once interested investors are identified, the SBV will seek government approval for the acquisition.

After facing a bank run in October 2022, SCB was taken over by the central bank to minimise the negative impact to SCB customers and the overall sector.

Several banks had encountered similar situations in the past, and have managed to recover and thrive.

In October last year, Trương Mỹ Lan, chairwoman of Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, and several others were arrested for alleged fraud related to the issuance and trading of bonds worth trillions of đồng.

Following the arrest, depositors rushed to SCB to withdraw their money as they believed the chairwoman was a major shareholder of SCB, one of Việt Nam’s largest private banks, resulting in the bank being placed under the "special control" of the SBV.

According to the SBV, SCB’s operations have begun to stabilise and the bank is now focusing on turnaround efforts.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính in April requested a transparent and asset-loss-preventing restructuring plan from the central bank for troubled banks, including SCB.

In addition to SCB, authorities have approved domestic commercial banks to acquire four other troubled lenders, including CBBank, OceanBank, GP Bank, and DongABank.

The SBV has taken over CBBank, OceanBank, and GP Bank at no cost since 2015 while placing DongABank under close scrutiny.

The acquiring banks have been asked to submit their acquisition plans to the government.

To establish mechanisms for restructuring weak banks and prevent manipulation within the banking system, the SBV is currently working on amendments to the Law on Credit Institutions.

The amendments are expected to be approved by the National Assembly in the upcoming session later this month. — VNS