Dinh Thi Thai (centre) is pictured with Vietcombank officials as she an appointment order on May 28. — Photo vietcombank.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's Deputy Director Dinh Thi Thai will be deputy director of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank) from June 1.

Thai received the appointment order from Vietcombank Chairman Nghiem Xuan Thanh at the bank's head office in Ha Noi on May 28, after the State Bank of Viet Nam gave its nod the previous day.

Thai has a master's degree in finance and 16 years of experience in banking and finance. She held important posts related to investment assessment, supervision and credit risk management at Vietcombank, before being appointed deputy director of Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development or Agribank in June 2014.

Thanh said the new post would bring significant pressure for Thai, as the current operational conditions of Vietcombank required "drastic action".

Vietcombank stated earlier this month that increasing numbers of provisional funds had significantly slashed its profits in the first quarter of this year. It posted a pre-tax profit of about VND1.46 trillion (US$69.52 million), down three per cent over the same period last year.

It attributed the fall in profits to the establishment of a VND1.52-trillion ($72.38 million) provisional fund, which increased by nearly 27 per cent year-on-year. Also, its bad debt ratio increased to 2.97 per cent at the end of Q1, from 2.3 per cent recorded at the end of 2014.

With total assets of VND763 trillion ($35.16 billion), Agribank retained the top slot among domestic banks in terms of assets in the first four months of 2015. — VNS