Draft law on banking to be submitted to NA next month

Draft law on banking to be submitted to NA next month

The NA’s Standing Committee met to consider the draft law amending and supplementing the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam, the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, and the Law on Credit Institutions on Tuesday.

National Assembly’s Vice Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Hồng speaks at the meeting. VNA/VNS Photo

A draft law, which amends and supplements several articles of three existing laws related to banking and anti-money laundering, will be submitted to the National Assembly (NA) for consideration at its first extraordinary meeting next month.

The assessment was made by NA’s Vice Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Hồng at a meeting of the NA’s Standing Committee to consider the draft law amending and supplementing the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam, the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, and the Law on Credit Institutions on Tuesday.

Presenting a summary report of the draft law at the meeting, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Phạm Đức Ấn explained the necessity to amend and supplement several articles of the three laws to promptly institutionalise the Party's policies, improve the institutional framework in the monetary and banking sector, and fulfil international commitments on providing information and data.

The amendments also aim to ensure consistency with the organisational structure of the Government, the SBV, and the two-tiered local administration model, addressing practical shortcomings, while adding regulations to develop the corporate bond market and meet international standards on anti-money laundering, according to Ấn.

On behalf of the NA’s Standing Committee, Governor Hồng said that the committee basically agreed with the necessity of enacting the amended law. She requested the drafting agency to continue to thoroughly review and closely adhere to practical realities to finalise the draft law before submitting it to the NA.

She requested the Government to assess the impacts of the draft law, clarifying the regulations that urgently need immediate amendments and those that require further consideration.

Regarding the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam, the drafting agency would need to add an explanation of the concept of ‘international investment status’; standardise terminology; and clarify the subjects, scope of information and data sharing mechanisms.

Besides, regulations on the management of the SBV and other ministries and agencies must not overlap to ensure the confidentiality of personal data and maximise the use of available data to avoid requiring organisations and individuals to provide information multiple times.

Besides, regulations on the structure, organisation and tasks of the SBV’s affiliated agencies must be consistent with the 2025 Inspection Law and the Law on Organisation of the Government.

As for foreign exchange reserves and the printing, minting and destruction of money, the Government would need to review and clearly explain the abolition of the Ministry of Finance's inspection responsibility, while clarifying the independent control and auditing mechanism to replace it.

For the proposal to allow the application of a different safety guarantee ratio than the general regulations, Hồng requested a full assessment of the impact, a clear explanation of the purpose of serving socio-economic development, and clarification of the conditions, scope, authority, duration of application, transparency mechanism, and especially the risk control mechanism to ensure system safety.

Regarding the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, the draft law needed to clarify the concept, scope and criteria for identifying suspicious signs of crypto assets. It was necessary to clearly delineate the responsibilities of service providers and regulatory agencies, avoiding overlap with securities and digital technology laws.

Besides, the responsibilities and coordination mechanisms between the Government Inspectorate, the SBV, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Public Security in anti-money laundering should be clarified, with clear explanations of the domestication of recommendations from the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Regarding the Law on Credit Institutions, the amendment to Article 114 would need to strictly regulate the conditions under which commercial banks and branches of foreign banks can act as agents managing collateral for privately placed corporate bonds.

The drafting agency must also clearly define the scope of operations, limits of liability, transparency mechanisms, conflict of interest control, and explain the reasons for not yet applying collateral management to publicly offered bonds.

Hồng assigned the NA’s Economic and Financial Committee to take the lead and coordinate with relevant agencies to finalise the official review report on the draft law.

She requested the Government to urgently direct the study, incorporation of feedback, and revision of the draft law for submission to the NA before July 20 this year in preparation for the NA’s meeting next month. 

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