World bank

The shareholders’ meetings of HDBank and PGBank were both organized on April 21. All of PGBank’s shareholders agreed on a plan to merge PGBank and HDBank, while 94.3% of shareholders agreed to do so for HDBank. The merger of two banks will start soon, with share conversion in July and the merger wrapped up in August. The schedule was a surprise to the finance community. Just days before, on March 29, when asked about the bank’s M&A plan, CEO of MBBank Luu Trung Thai said MBBank was still considering banks for the plan, including PGBank.  Now, as PGBank has decided to merge with HDBank, MBBank will have to look for another partner. At the 2018 shareholders’ meeting, LienViet Post Bank stated it was considering raising charter capital, restructuring shareholders, completing an M&A, and restructuring credit institutions as requested by the State Bank. Duong Cong Minh, former chair of LienViet Post Bank, is now chair of Sacombank. Nguyen Van Huynh, who … [Read more...] about Commercial banks discuss M&As – again

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is planning to change its policy on reserve requirement ratios for credit institutions and foreign banks’ branches for the first time since 2011. The plan has put forward for comment. The SBV will reduce the reserve requirement ratio by half for credit institutions that take part in the central bank’s plans to support the restructuring of ailing credit institutions. The reserve ratio is the portion of reservable liabilities that depository institutions must hold onto, rather than lend out or invest. Currently, the SBV’s reserve requirement ratio applicable to demand and below 12-month term deposits is 3 percent of the total deposits, while the rate for 12-month-plus term deposits is 1 percent. The ratios for foreign currency deposits are 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively. The above rates have remained unchanged since 2011. According to the central bank, the draft policy … [Read more...] about Central bank to change reserve requirement policy

Cash flow has returned to the banking system after Tet (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Liquidity of the banking system has been plentiful again after the Lunar New Year (Tet), helping the central bank net withdraw more than 51.55 trillion VND (2.2 billion USD) in the past week. According to a report from the Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), the good liquidity, which was thanks to the return of cash flow to the banking system after Tet, has helped interest rates of loans in the inter-bank market decrease at all terms to 4.52 percent per year for overnight loans and 4.64 percent for one-week loans. "The peak period when capital demand was rising sharply a few weeks before Tet has passed, and interest rates in the inter-bank market will likely remain stable at 4-4.75 percent per year," SSI forecast. According to the SSI report, deposit interest rates listed at commercial banks are also relatively stable, with a slight rise of 0.1-0.2 percentage points applied at some banks as promotional … [Read more...] about Bank liquidity abundant after Tet

In a letter, it said all commercial banks must review and amend their internal regulations if needed to improve safety. “Banks must ensure all their staff fully understand and implement all regulations and regularly provide them with training.” The State Bank of Vietnam has instructed all banks to improve safety of their money transactions after the Ministry of Public Security issued an international warrant for a fugitive bank executive for allegedly misappropriating nearly 11 million USD from a customer (Photo: vietnamnet.vn) The central bank also called on lenders to upgrade their technologies to improve security and work closely with authorities to provide and receive information related to frauds. “Education on money transaction should be improved for customers. Oversight and rotation of staff are very important.” It said banks must immediately report to the SBV and other related authorities when they detect a fraud or security violation, it … [Read more...] about SBV tells banks to up security after US$11-million fraud

AT&T Inc said on Saturday it agreed to buy Time Warner Inc for $85.4 billion, the boldest move yet by a telecommunications company to acquire content to stream over its network to attract a growing number of online viewers. The biggest deal in the world this year will, if approved by regulators, give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other coveted media assets. The tie-up will likely face intense scrutiny by U.S. antitrust enforcers worried that AT&T might try to limit distribution of Time Warner material. AT&T will pay $107.50 per Time Warner share, half in cash and half in stock, worth $85.4 billion overall, according to a company statement. AT&T said it expected to close the deal by the end of 2017. Dallas-based AT&T said the U.S. Department of Justice would review the deal and that the companies were determining which Federal Communications Commission licenses, if any, would be transferred to AT&T in the deal. … [Read more...] about AT&T to buy Time Warner for $85 bln, create telecom-media giant