Former Governor of State Bank of Việt Nam Nguyễn Văn Bình. — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

HÀ NỘI — The Politburo on Sunday announced its decision to issue a warning against Nguyễn Văn Bình, the former Governor of the State Bank of Việt Nam, for a range of offences that resulted in serious losses.

According to the Office of the Party Central Committee, on November 6, Party General Secretary and President Nguyễn Phú Trọng chaired a Politburo meeting to deliberate the appropriate disciplinary measure against Nguyễn Văn Bình, himself a Politburo member, who is currently head of the Party’s Central Economic Commission.

During his stint at the helm of the State Bank from 2011 to 2016, incomplete regulatory documents that go against the Government’s rules were issued, which lead to serious violations and shortcomings in handling bad debt and eventually resulted in losses for the State coffers, the statement reads.

He was also disciplined for signing and promulgating a State Bank resolution approving special loans at zero interest rates for the financially-struggling Việt Nam Construction Bank (VNCB) without guaranteed collateral.

Bình was noted to be “chiefly responsible” for the missteps at the central bank for having approved Thiên Thanh Group to buy shares from Đại Tín Bank (TrustBank), the predecessor to VNCB; approved Phạm Công Danh to be the member of the board of directors of VNCB; and failed to exercise special monitoring over VNCB.

Danh was chairman of Thiên Thanh Group and had instructed his subordinates to withdraw money from VNCB under many falsified contracts to pay the debt of the Thiên Thanh Group, resulting in losses to the tune of VNĐ9 trillion (US$388.3 million) in the 2012-14 period.

The former governor had also breached the principle of democratic centralism and work regulations as he didn’t report to higher authorities for approval in dealing with serious and major issues. Incomplete reporting to the Government and failure to abide by the instructions from the Government in the buying at zero đồng of three then-struggling banks – VNCB, OceanBank, and Global Petroleum Bank (GP Bank) – is a violation of authority regulations.

Serious violations and shortcomings taking place at the State Bank of Việt Nam and other credit institutions by the officials here have resulted in criminal charges under his watch, the Politburo said.

Bình’s faults were characterised to be “grave” and triggering public outrage, undermining the reputation of the State Bank of Việt Nam and Bình himself.

During the review process, Bình has accepted responsibility for the wrongdoings and shortcomings, and agreed to receive disciplinary measures.

The Party has four modes of punishment against its members, namely reprimand, warning, demotion and expulsion.

Considering the context of the situation, the nature and the extent of the violations, the consequences along with the contributions of Bình during his tenure, the Politburo decided to issue a warning to Bình. — VNS