VietNamNet Bridge – They are Pham Cong Danh , chairman of both Thien Thanh Group and VNCB, Phan Thanh Mai, former board member and general director of VNCB, and Mai Huu Khuong, former board member in charge of finance, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement released on July 29.

Pham Cong Danh and Phan Thanh Mai.

To secure stable and safe operations of VNCB, the board of directors issued decisions on Monday this week dismissing the three and announcing new appointments to fill up the vacancies.

The central bank also approved the new leadership of the bank on July 29 with Vu Bach Yen picked as new chairwoman. Yen has been serving as a board member since February 2012 and a major shareholder of the bank.

Meanwhile, VNCB deputy general director Dam Minh Duc was promoted to the post of general director.

Sources told the Daily that VNCB, formerly known as TrustBank, has been put under strict surveillance by the central bank since 2012. However, the decision has not affected its normal operations.

In 2012, TrustBank was listed among the weakest banks in the country, which must be restructured. Later that year, the bank’s restructuring scheme with the involvement of a group of strategic shareholders was approved.

The group of strategic shareholders was led by Thien Thanh Group represented by Pham Cong Danh. The bank had its name changed to VNCB and made debut in May 2013 with a new business strategy.

VNCB raised its chartered capital to VND7.5 trillion on December 26, 2013, and announced to operate as a general-purpose urban bank, focusing on serving construction and building material sectors.

Share acquisitions emerged as a controversial issue as in the first capital increase, Thien Thanh Group reportedly spent VND6.5 trillion. For the second capital spike, aside from earnings from the liquidation of assets of old shareholders, Thien Thanh spent thousands of billions of dong.

Meanwhile, incomplete statistics showed Thien Thanh’s total assets were only VND3 trillion at the end of 2011. Its equity was over VND1.2 trillion while its revenue stood at VND2 trillion that year.

A leader of the central bank confirmed that VNCB had been put under special surveillance. According to the Law on Credit Institutions , banks under special surveillance may lose solvency.

Though VNCB has been banned from giving out loans, it has launched several real estate credit packages in recent times. In May, VNCB introduced a VND50-trillion credit program for the real estate sector.

As of the end of May, VNCB had six founding shareholders including Agribank, Long An Foodstuff Company, Thien Thanh Group and three shareholders belonging to State agencies, plus 545 individual shareholders.

TrustBank earlier sold an 84.04% stake to a new group of shareholders including Thien Thanh Group and other individuals. Thien Thanh holds a 9.67% stake.

As of the end of 2013, it had 115 banking units and around 1,500 staff in the country.

SGT/VNN