The State Bank of Vietnam has selected 58 workers in the banking industry through a random lottery that will be audited as part of moves to clamp down on corruption in Vietnam’s central bank. The bank will review the employees’ income and assets to make sure that they are not receiving payments off the books.
For background, the banking industry in Vietnam has been in the spotlight over the past two years on the back of the country’s biggest fraud stemming from Saigon Commercial Bank or SCB.
Essentially, In late 2022, there was a small bank run on the bank after it was announced that Truong My Lan, the head of Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, a real estate conglomerate with close ties to SCB had been arrested. The bank, as a result, was put under ‘special administration’ by the SBV. Just over a year later, it was revealed that Lan was alleged to have embezzled from SCB, upwards of US$12.4 billion. It was also revealed that Lan had also paid off State Bank of Vietnam employees sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars.
Truong My Lan has since been convicted and given a death sentence and increased scrutiny of the banking industry has become a key priority for the authorities.