Lyonnais forex deal suspended

Lyonnais forex deal suspended

HANOI (Reuters): The general manager of the Vietnam branch of
Credit Lyonnais said yesterday his bank had been suspended from
foreign exchange dealing for a month after it broke regulations
governing margins.

"The suspension is for the amount of US$2,298 and the central
bank asked Credit Lyonnais to refund this $2,298 to customers
regarding two separate forward foreign exchange transactions in
February," Patrick Oberreiner said in a statement.

Under current regulations banks must stick to a maximum margin
of 0.1 percent on exchange transactions.

"The problem was with margins. On the difference between the
buying and selling rate we are allowed to charge 0.1 percent but
we charged about 15 dong more," he added.

The extra charge was equivalent to the bank charging a margin
close to 0.2 percent.

An official at the central State Bank's press department said
the decision had been issued on Monday and required Credit
Lyonnais to repay 29.84 million dong ($2,298) to customers
involved in the transactions.