Bank fraud hits Vietnam

Bank fraud hits Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam told National Assembly members that the banking industry was plagued with problems of fraud and bad debts, according to a press report here.

Governor Cao Si Kiem, who addressed a session of the National Assembly closed to the media on Tuesday, said that 88 employees involved in 36 separate incidents of bank fraud worth 28.8 billion dong (US$2.8 million) were investigated last year, the semi-official Vietnam News daily reported.

Of these, he cited 11 cases involving deliberate distortion of banking regulations leading to losses of $2.1 million.

In the past three years more than 550 employees, including 35 officials had been either demoted or dismissed from their banking jobs, he said.

During the same period another 118 employees, including five officials had received either suspended sentences or prison terms of up to 20 years, he said. Only 18.5 percent of fraud-related losses had been recovered during the past four years, he said.