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| Some lawmakers has proposed a regulation to exempt officers working to return weak banks to normal operations from criminal charges if the restructuring failed to work out in the end. — Photo cafef.vn |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — A debate ensued in the National Assembly on Thursday morning on the controversial exemption of criminal liability for those in charge of restructuring financially unstable banks.
Under the draft Law on Credit Institutions, which was brought on the table for discussion during the morning session, lawmakers from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) proposed a regulation to exempt officers working to return weak banks to normal operations from criminal charges if the restructuring failed to work out in the end.
SBV Governor Lê Minh Hưng said that from actual experience, those who are charged with restructuring work are under tremendous pressure, therefore they tended to refuse or find a way to escape the responsibility.
Deputy Trần Hoàng Ngân from HCM City agreed with the exemption, saying restructuring officers must deal with a lot of tension, and even threats of attacks, while working to resolve enormous bad debts of the banks.
“If there is no exemption of criminal liability (for those) doing such a difficult job without any encouragement policies, it will be very hard to persuade people to do it,” Hà Nội deputy Nguyễn Văn Thắng said.
Those against the move were, however, vocal in their protest.
Đồng Tháp Province deputy Phạm Văn Hòa said any exemption of criminal responsibility was already clearly regulated under the Penal Code.
Another HCM City deputy, Trương Trọng Nghĩa, seconded that arguing those who work in other dangerous professional fields are not granted such preferential treatment.
“We can provide them (restructuring officers) special encouragement policies such as higher salary instead of that exemption,” Nghĩa said.
Financial troubles report
A deputy from An Giang Province, Mai Thi Ánh Tuyết, warned about the vague regulation which generally asks that credit institutions that are no longer affordable or solvent must report to the SBV as soon as the situation starts getting out of hand.
Article 195, in particular, did not consider the fact that all credit institutions always want to hide their crippling financial situation as long as possible for fear of being put under the Government’s special monitoring cap, Tuyết said.
“The law must have certain policies to encourage financially weak institutions to report their situation to the SBV as well as penalties for those intentionally keeping it a secret,” she added.
Thanh Hóa Province deputy Mai Sĩ Diễn also urged clearer regulations regarding the credit institutions’ compulsory reports on their difficult operation.
“If not, it might be already too late when the Government puts them on the list requiring special monitoring,” he said. — VNS
