Saigon Commercial Bank, which was put under ‘special administration’ by the State Bank of Vietnam in October of 2022, has announced it will be limiting withdrawals to VND 10 million or about US$393 a day. This is down from VND 100 million or US$3,930 a day.
Tien Phong points out that the bank has also discontinued a number of products and services and has closed 130 branches since June of last year. It also notes erratic changes in withdrawal limits at the bank in recent months: In August they were cut three times from VND 200 million to VND 100 million, and then to VND 50 million. In September, they were then revised down again to VND 10 million before being increased at the end of the month to VND 100 million.
VN Express has covered this in much the same way, however, it also notes that the SBV is having challenges finding another bank to take over SCB which is generally the next step after a bank is placed under special administration. It suggests this is because SCB is much bigger than other banks that have been placed under special administration in the past.
Notably, SCB was at the centre of a scandal believed to be Vietnam’s biggest in which real estate developer Truong My Lan used funds from the bank which she indirectly controlled to buy up land and real estate projects as well as allegedly pay bribes to government officials and appropriate for her own personal use.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that the SBV had pumped about US$24 billion into SCB to keep it afloat but this latest development would suggest the bank’s situation does not seem to have improved all that much, if at all.
See also: Banking in Vietnam: Industry Overview