Effective Banking Governance Conference

18/01/2017 16:33

On 27th January 2017, VNU University of Economics and Business (UEB) in collaboration with Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency and Communications Committee - State Bank of Vietnam organized the third annual conference on Corporate Governance in Banks, focusing on “Effective Banking Governance”. The purpose of the conference is to assess the current situation and propose appropriate solutions to strengthen governance competency of Vietnam commercial banks as well as banking system supervision competency of management authorities following international standards.

The conference was honored to welcome Dr. Vu Van Hoa - Vice President of State Audit Office of Vietnam, Dr. Ha Huy Tuan - Vice President of National Financial Supervisory Commission, Prof.Dr. Nguyen Quang Thai - General Secretary of Vietnam Economic Association and more than 200 participants from State Audit Office of Vietnam, State Commission of Inspection, State Economics Committee, State Securities Commission. The conference also attended by representatives of universities and research institutes in Hanoi, Da Nang as well as leaders, experts, lecturers and students of VNU University of Economics and Business.

Opening the conference, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Rector of the UEB emphasized the purpose and the main discussion of the conference.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son gives opening speech at the conference

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son gives a big thank to Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development - sponsor of the event

Giving speech at the conference, Mr. Lam Bao Quang - Acting Director of International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Vietnam highly appreciated the initiative of organizing the conference series on corporate governance in banks. On behalf of IFC, he expressed the desire to support the UEB in research and training activities as well as accompanying the Faculty of Finance and Banking in doing the research project on corporate governance in Banks in Vietnam and Asean.

The keynote speakers at the conference were senior experts in finance and banking. Ms. Nguyen Nguyet Anh - Senior Consultant of IFC presented the discussion on “International Practices on Related Parties, and recommendations for Vietnam Banks”; Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Tu - Leader of the research group on corporate governance in banks of the UEB, presented the research on “Board Structure and Effective Bank Performance”; Mr. Le Trung Kien - Deputy Head of Banking Operation Safety Policy Department, State Bank of Vietnam, proposed “Solutions for banking supervision effectiveness according to Basel II”; Dr. Ta Thanh Binh - Head of Market Development Department, State Securities Commission analyzed the “Transparency and disclosure of listed banks on Vietnam stock market”.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Tu presents the research at the conference

The discussions attracted interest and received many responses from participants. Dr. Can Van Luc said that the upcoming task of the banking sector was considering and comparing the differences in documents between Vietnam and international standards, subsequently proposing the detailed steps for adopting international practices of related party transactions. Discussing about the effectiveness of the board of management’s structure, Dr. Ha Huy Tuan mentioned the need for qualitative analysis, specifying the characteristics of the board of management in commercial banks in Vietnam, which affected their operational efficiency.

Dr. Vu Van Hoa - Vice President of State Audit Office of Vietnam assumed that in order to enhance the effectiveness of the board of management, it was necessary to improve legal documents, clarifying ownership and executive privilege, title standardization as well as empower minority shareholders. Besides, there were some suggestions for implementing Basel II in banking supervision, such as completing the legal framework in accordance with international standards, designing the financial infrastructure for both management authorities and banks, risk inspection along with training of human resources to meet the requirements of risk inspection. In addition, some other opinions mentioned the importance of better banking system to comprehensively apply international standards, such as corporate governance principles of G20/OECD or Basel Committee Guidelines on transparency and information disclosure.

Senior experts at the conference

After nearly four hours of discussion, Mr. Phan Huyen Anh summarized the outcomes of the conference. All contributions would be considered by the State Bank of Vietnam when deploying the project “Restructuring Credit Institutions” in period 2016 - 2020 as regulated by the Decision No.254/QĐ-TTg of the Prime Minister.

“Effective Banking Governance” Conference was annual event on corporate governance in bank held by the UEB and related agencies, with the purpose of widening and enhancing the application of research product, as well as creating a forum for scholars, practical experts and policy makers.

The conference was also a product of research-associated training of the Master program in Financial Institutions Management held by the UEB. With support from the State Bank of Vietnam, IFC and leading experts in finance, banking and auditing, the Master program in Financial Institutions Management of the UEB would be a focus of Research Program in Corporate Governance in Banks for Vietnam and ASEAN during the period of 2017 - 2020, implemented by Faculty of Finance and Banking.

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Hoai Tho (Faculty of Finance and Banking)