Unveiling the Latest Power Players in Vietnam’s Banking Sector

In recent times, several banks have disclosed a list of shareholders holding 1% or more of the charter capital as stipulated by the Law on Credit Institutions (amended). The list includes many low-profile individuals reported to hold a large number of bank shares.

At VPBank, in addition to the well-known leaders on the Board of Directors and in the Board of Management and their relatives, the recently disclosed list includes five relatively low-profile individuals with no direct relationship with VPBank’s leaders. Together, these five individuals hold nearly 1.225 billion VPB shares, equivalent to more than 15% of the bank’s capital, currently valued at nearly VND 22,500 billion (nearly USD 900 million) based on the closing price on July 26.

At OCB, apart from the senior leaders and related parties, there is another “mysterious” major shareholder with very limited information available – Mr. Nguyen Duc Toan, who owns over 74.7 million shares, representing 3.637% of the bank’s charter capital. An individual related to Mr. Toan also holds over 77.7 million OCB shares, equivalent to 3.784% of the charter capital. In total, this group of shareholders holds 152.4 million OCB shares, or 7.421% of the bank’s shares.

Based on OCB’s closing price of VND 14,800 per share on July 26, the group’s OCB shares are valued at VND 2,255 billion, with Mr. Toan’s stake alone worth VND 1,150 billion.

At MSB, the only individual holding more than 1% of the bank’s shares is Mr. Nilesh Ratilal Banglorewala (born in 1965), a former MSB block director. He currently holds 66.5 million MSB shares, equivalent to 3.32% of the bank’s charter capital, valued at VND 977 billion.

According to the amended Law on Credit Institutions, which took effect on July 1, shareholders owning 1% or more of a credit institution’s charter capital are required to provide the institution with information about themselves and related parties, including full name, personal identification number, nationality, passport number and date and place of issue for foreign shareholders.

Shareholders holding 1% or more of the charter capital must also disclose information about the number and proportion of shares owned by themselves and related parties in the credit institution. This information must be provided in writing to the credit institution within seven working days from the date of occurrence or change of information. Regarding the proportion of ownership, shareholders holding more than 1% of the charter capital are only required to publicly disclose changes in their ownership ratio or the ratio of ownership by themselves and related parties when it reaches or exceeds 1% of the charter capital compared to the previous disclosure.

The Law on Credit Institutions (amended) also requires credit institutions to publicly disclose information about the full names of individuals or names of organizations that are shareholders owning 1% or more of the institution’s charter capital, as well as the number and proportion of shares owned by such individuals and their related parties, on the credit institution’s website within seven working days from the date of receiving the information.

The concept of “related parties” has also been expanded to include grandparents, grandparents’ siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews, covering five generations.

Previously, shareholders were only required to disclose information about transactions, ownership, and related parties when holding 5% or more of a bank’s capital (major shareholder).

Currently, the number of outstanding shares of banks is mostly above 1 billion, with Saigonbank being the bank with the lowest number of outstanding shares at nearly 340 million. Therefore, holding 1% or more of a bank’s charter capital implies that the individual possesses assets worth at least VND 40-50 billion.