Sacombank has signed a contract with ERNST & YOUNG Vietnam Limited and FPT Information System Co., Ltd to help adopt the International Financial Reporting Standard 9.

According to the roadmap for adopting the standard released by the Ministry of Finance in March 2020, it becomes mandatory for companies for financial disclosure from 2025.

IFRS 9 is an international financial reporting standard created by the International Accounting Standards Board to replace the old IAS39 and came into force in 2018.

The adoption is accompanied by changes to credit risk models, enhanced governance and control of accounting and closer co-ordination between the risk and finance functions.

Sacombank is set to become one of the pioneers in Viet Nam to comply with IFRS 9 standards.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in HCM City on November 24, Nguyen Thuy Duong, deputy general director of ERNST & YOUNG Vietnam and head of its financial services business, praised Sacombank for attaching priority to the project.

“With experience in consulting leading commercial banks in Viet Nam, we would like to note that the comprehensive adoption of IFRS 9 project requires a huge amount of work, determination from the management and staff involved in the bank’s project and co-ordination between all departments in the bank.”

Ha Van Trung, the bank’s deputy CEO and the project director, said: “The adoption of IFRS will improve the transparency and quality of financial statements, helping to protect investors' interests as IFRS … creates comparability in analysing and assessing the financial statements of Vietnamese enterprises with those [elsewhere].

“Financial statements according to IFRS are an important criterion to evaluate the efficiency in business operations and risk management of the bank in accordance to international practices.

“The project is in line with Sacombank’s strategy to apply Basel and achieve comprehensive transformation.” — VNS