Sep 13, 2012

Vietnam - 32 ranked commercial banks throw stones at rating firm

Follow Me on Pinterest
VietNamNet Bridge – The report on the competiveness rating given to 32 commercial banks has been facing strong opposition from the banks, especially from the ones put into C or D groups. The State Bank of Vietnam has denied the facts.

Bankers say the rating unreasonable

The report on the credit rating of 32 commercial banks released by CRV Company on September 8 showed that nine of the 32 banks were ranked in “A” group, the most competitive ones in the market.

“B” group included nine banks, the ones with good competitiveness. “C” group, which gathers average competitiveness, comprises of 10 banks. Meanwhile, “D” group with worst banks comprises of three banks.

The banks in C and D groups all have expressed their disagreement with the CRV’s report, saying that CRV’s research team had never met or contacted or interviewed them before, affirming that the way of working followed by CRV is quite different from that pursued by international credit rating firms, including Moody’s.

An executive of Maritime Bank, which is in “B” group, also said CRV has never contacted the bank to get information or learn more about the bank.

He went on to say that the grades given by CRV are quite different from that in the credit rating report released by the Credit Information Center (CIC) under the State Bank of Vietnam earlier this year.

In the CIC’s report, Maritime Bank was listed among the 12 best banks - G12, which controls 85 percent of the market share. Meanwhile, in the CRV’s report, Maritime Bank is in “B” group.

An executive of OCB also said that the report does not show clearly the criteria for ranking, therefore, the rating proves to be unreasonable and unconvincing.

“I do not know which criteria they considered when giving the rating. I cannot understand why some banks were put by the State Bank into the first and second groups (the best banks), but now appear in the CRV’s report in the C group.

Meanwhile, a manager of a D group’s bank, said the credit rating does not worry him, and that he does not care about the report.

“We are not a big bank. However, since the day of operation, we have never had to make compulsory borrowing from the State bank and we have never been put into the list of the banks subject to the restructuring. Therefore, no need to worry about the credit rating,” he said.

Meanwhile, an official of the State Bank of Vietnam said on September 10 that CRV did not get information from the watchdog agency before making public the crediting rating for 2012.

Under the current laws, the State Bank of Vietnam is the highest authority in ranking and assessing the capability of commercial banks. However, the laws do not prohibit private institutions to make surveys and release the results of their research works.

In 2010, a company released the report on the credit rating of Vietnamese commercial banks, which then raised controversy. Experts then said that the report faced the opposition from banks because it hurt banks when talking about a “sensitive issue” – the credit rating. Nowadays, CRV seems to mention a less sensitive issue – the competitive edges of banks.

On September 10, a representative of CRV admitted that the authors of the report did not contact and meet the banks when they collected information for the research work. The figures and information were then analyzed from the finance reports made public by the banks themselves.

VNE


Business & Investment Opportunities 
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com

No comments:

Post a Comment