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.