Changes in senior personnel, listing on the securities market, raising capital and the settlement of bad debts are expected to be the top priorities of banks at their upcoming annual general meetings (AGM) this month.

At the AGMs this year, many banks are expected to make major changes in the selection of their top personnel for the upcoming term from 2019 to 2024.

Techcombank is due to submit a proposal for eight members of the banks Board of Directors (BoD) and three members of its supervisory board (SB) for the 2019-24 period.

Military Bank will also consult its shareholders about a plan to elect the BoD and the SB with the intention of having five members in the BoD and three members of the SB.

SCB will also hold a general meeting this month, where it will change the BoD and SB for the next five years. According to the banks announcement, two members for the BoD and two members of the SB will be selected for the new term.

Many banks are also expected to list on stock market this year as the Prime Minister has instructed banks to list shares by 2020.

To date, only 17 out of 34 banks have listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) and the Unlisted Public Company Market (UpCom). Of these, 10 banks list shares on HOSE, including BID, CTG, EIB, HDB, MBB, STB, TCB, TPB, VCB and VPB, three banks on HNX (ACB, NVB and SHB) and four on UPCoM (BAB, KLB, LPB and VIB).

As such, half of banks still have not listed shares and will have to speed up to meet the central banks deadline.

In 2018, about 10 banks had plans to list shares on the bourse, but only three banks could fulfill their plans, namely Techcombank, HD Bank and TP Bank. All of them listed shares on HoSE.

They were also listed among banks with the most impressive business results in 2018. Techcombank jumped to second position in the banking system, just after Vietcombank, with profits of VND10.7 trillion. TP Bank saw profit double and HD Bank reported record high profit at VND4 trillion.

According to banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu, it is better to list shares on the bourse, because the listing will help improve share liquidity, and make business activities transparent, thus improving banks prestige in investors eyes and attracting more investors to the banks.

However, after listing, banks will also have to meet higher requirements, such as information transparency.

At this years AGMs, many banks will also have to discuss capital hikes to meet a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 8 per cent in 2020 as per the central banks Basel II norms.

At recent AGMs, VIB and Nam A Bank, for example, approved plans to increase charter capital this year to meet the central banks requirements. Nam A Banks shareholders agreed to increase charter capital from VND3.35 trillion (US$143.77 million) to VND5 trillion while VIB also approved an increase in the banks charter capital to VND10.9 trillion from VND7.84 trillion. — VNS