Multiple bank CEOs rotate jobs due to lack of qualified candidates

CEOs have rotated between the leading positions of major banks in Vietnam due to the lack of qualified candidates.

Last week, An Binh Bank (ABBank) welcomed Duong Thi Mai Hoa to be the new CEO. The lady previously worked as the CEO of Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB Bank) and the General Director of Commercial Banks of the Maritime Bank.

In March, the board of Nam A Bank approved the resignation of CEO Luong Thi Cam Tu for her “personal reasons.” But by the end of the month, the lady was appointed to be a member in the administrative board of Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank), where Nam A Bank is currently holding over 20 percent of shares.

Just a month before that, Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) allowed Nguyen Canh Vinh to resign from the CEO position after only 5 months of sitting on the chair. Vinh previously worked as the deputy general director of Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank).

The names of these leaders are very familiar in the Vietnam bank industry as they have been circling around banks. However, there is concern that this pattern shows the lack of quality leaders in the industry.

Vietnamese banks are in need of highly qualified leaders, according to a recent survey conducted by Navigos Group, a company which claims to have the largest and most comprehensive database of Vietnamese professionals.

Up to 21 percent of surveyed employers said that they have challenges in recruiting because there is a lack of qualified candidates in the industry, the report said.

Recruiting a new CEO is an imperative trend which depends on the strategy of each bank in a specific period, said Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a financial expert with over 30 years of banking and finance experience in the U.S., Germany and Vietnam.

When bank owners want to go in a new direction or come up with a new strategy, they look for people who are more suitable for their plan, Hieu said. The wave of CEOs rotating between banks will continue in the future as banks set new directions and goals, he added.

Other experts also say that selecting a new CEO is part of the periodical plan of a bank. As there is concern that there will be more pressure from the market and profit goals in the future, CEOs who cannot meet the standard of the bank will be replaced by more competent ones.

Vietnam now has seven wholly-owned foreign banks, as well as 50 branches and more than 50 representative offices of foreign banks and joint-venture banks. Their total assets have topped $35.8 billion.