Banks seek to appoint new leaders

Banks seek to appoint new leaders

Three commercial joint stock banks in Vietnam have appointed new CEOs this week.

Mr. Phan Huy Khang - STB's new General Director

On July 3, Sacombank appointed Phan Huy Khang as its new General Director. He was previously General Director of the Southern Bank.

VPBank assigned Nguyen Duc Vinh who was Vice Chairman of Techcombank earlier as its new General Director and TienPhong Bank assigned Nguyen Hung as its General Director. Hung was general director of VPBank since 2009.

According to an unofficial report, so far this year, up to half of nearly 40 Vietnamese commercial banks have changed leaders and almost all have made changes to their management boards.

After the Tet Holiday, Nguyen Dinh Tung (Deputy General Director of Maritime Bank) has become acting General Director of Ocean Bank.

In May, Maritime Bank appointed its new General Director Atul Malik from India. He became the bank's first foreign general director. Techcombank and MDB had previously employed foreigners as key managers.

A general director term is often 4-5 years, but over the past five years, half of the local banks changed their general directors every 1-2 years. TienPhong Bank changed its general director three times in two years and LienvietPost Bank changed officials three times during four years.

According to Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Managing Director of Navigos Search, changes in key manager positions are normal. General director terms often last 3 to 5 years. However, over the past few years, banks have been racing to replace their leaders, which could be attributed to changes in ownership, restructuring or mergers. She also added that this trend would continue in the near future.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a financial expert, commented that the changes of CEO at some banks was due to restructuring, but many changes were due to internal issues or capacity-related problems. The change shows a positive trend for banks’ restructure and capital increase.

The trend has also been encouraged by the State Bank of Vietnam as part of its banking restructuring and merger policy.

He, however, noted that a number of CEOs moving from bank to bank or recruitment of foreign COEs showed a limited human resource issue in the Vietnamese banking market. CEOs are among the most demanding position requiring training, experience, and top management skills.

The Vietnamese banking sector is facing the human resource shortage due to its overheated development over the recent years. Banks often recruit new graduates and then provide them intensive training courses.

vietnamnet