HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam’s central bank is finalising a report, based on a plan from an unspecified investor, to restructure ailing Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, the lender at the centre of the country’s biggest financial fraud on record, local media reported.
Last month, Reuters reported that Vietnam developer Sun Group had proposed a rescue plan for SCB, which entailed the full reimbursement within 15 years of nearly $26 billion the central bank has pumped into SCB since October 2022 after a run on its deposits.
The central bank has drafted a report about the rescue plan prepared by the unspecified investor, the finance ministry’s Dau Tu newspaper reported during the weekend.
The draft is subject to changes after opinions from relevant state bodies, the paper said, giving no details on the plan or a timeframe for its submission.
Reuters has reported that Sun Group had been appointed by the central bank to prepare the restructuring plan for SCB.
The central bank, SCB and Sun Group did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The State Bank of Vietnam placed SCB under its supervision to stem a run on the bank sparked by the October 2022 arrest of real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was later sentenced to death over her role in siphoning off from SCB the equivalent of billions of dollars in loans to shell companies she controlled.
In a separate trial over money laundering and the illegal issuance of corporate bonds, Lan had on Monday an additional life sentence reduced to 30 years on appeal, according to state media.
SCB has been using cash injections from the central bank to cover cash withdrawals since October 2022, Reuters has reported.
The central bank and government have repeatedly sought help for SCB from the private sector, specifically calling on foreign investors, according to state media, despite restrictions such as a 30% cap on combined foreign ownership of Vietnamese banks.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen and Khanh Vu; Editing by Martin Petty and Gerry Doyle)
