37th ASEAN Banking Association Council Meeting: Sharing Experience on Professional Risks

On the occasion of the Vietnam Banking Association hosting the 37^th ASEAN Banking Association Council Meeting in Hanoi on November 2, Vietnam Business Forum’s reporter Lan Anh talked with Ms Duong Thu Huong, general secretary of Vietnam Banking Association.

 

The meeting will focus on discussing three major areas, including the establishment of a special board on professional risk, the formation of loss data collector, and conference on professional risk.

 

At the two conferences on professional risk held by the ASEAN Banking Association (ABA) in Manila and Brunei in July 2007, representatives suggested setting up a special board on professional risk. The board would be aimed to build a forum for professional risks managers of banks in the ASEAN region to discuss issues related to professional risk, and share knowledge and experience in dealing with unexpected incidents at their banks, to comply with regulations of the Basel II Convention.

 

If the idea was approved by the majority of members, a special meeting would be held right after the standing committee meeting on inter-regional relations to discuss the operational charter of this board. ABA would send representatives to attend this special meeting. After the special board was established, a standing committee could be set up if necessary.

 

Coinciding with the meeting of professional risk managers in July, 2007 in Brunei, ABA carried out a survey to collect opinions and receive approval from its ASEAN banks to build an agency to collect loss data. This is a hidden database including all information on loss of credit risks and professional risks, provided for banks in the ASEAN region as well as foreign banks located in the region. The loss data agency would help provide data for banks to set up a risk distribution model and avoid unexpected incidents by drawing lessons from incidents taking place outside. The charter and operational articles of the working group would be discussed at the standing committee meeting on finance, investment and trade cooperation. The Banking Association of each ASEAN country will appoint representatives for this working group.

 

Some 200 banking officials from 10 ASEAN countries are expected to attend the meeting.

 

Vietnam Banking Association became an official member of ABA in 1995. Since then, Vietnam Banking Association has taken active part in activities, especially annual meetings and seminars held by ABA. The outstanding relation between Vietnam Banking Association and ABA is demonstrated by the cooperation in education, promoted since 2004 when the training centre of Vietnam Banking Association was formed. Vietnam has sent 40 delegations, including 824 officials of member banks, to carry out surveys in nine countries in Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines and China, as well as Germany. In addition, ABA has organised conferences for its members in Hanoi and other professional classes such as credit management, forex management, and international Letter of credit (L/C) regulations.

 

Vietnamese banks are now facing their biggest obstacles in the weakness in management capacity, technology, backward banking infrastructure, and especially the shortage of qualified human resources. Upgrading the technology system is always closely associated with the financial competence of each bank. But human resources trained by ABA have benefited Vietnamese banks in the current process of integration into the world economy.