Mergers spanut bankers on brink of layoffs in Vietnam

For many bank employees in Vietnam, even those holding high positions, a merger between their bank and another institution could also mean the day they leave their job is drawing near.

A number of mergers between lenders in the country have been approved or actually carried out, leaving employees of the acquired banks in constant fear that they would be fired anytime by the new employers.

“The new bosses always promise to ensure jobs for everyone but they in fact have myriad tricks to lay off the employees of the banks they have acquired,” Hoang An, who used to work for a commercial bank that was acquired by another in late 2013, revealed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

One of the tricks is to set targets that cannot be met so that employees of the acquired banks will voluntarily ask to quit, An said.

“Others include cutting salaries or annual bonuses, criticizing your professional mistakes, or firing you before the salary days,” he added.

“Despite the mistreatment, few have enough courage to voluntarily quit.”

Another banker, who only agreed to be named T., suffered even more when his bank was merged with another major lender in late 2012.

“I was then a marketing executive but the new employers transferred me to the human resources department, and tasked me with nothing to do,” he recalled.

“They said they were restructuring and wanted to create vacancies to employ new people.”

T. said he “even did not have [his] own computer” and was eventually dismissed in November 2014.

When their banks are taken over, bankers who hold high positions are also on the same boats as their subordinates.

The trick to have these bankers voluntarily ask to quit is making them feel offended, a former director of the card center of a commercial bank told Tuoi Tre.

“The new employer said I could only continue working at the bank if I agreed to be demoted to the deputy director position and have my salary halved,” the banker, who asked not to be named, said.

“My self-esteem did not allow me to say ‘yes’ to such offer, so I quit.”

In other cases, employees of the acquired banks will be seconded to positions which are not their strengths, and so they will eventually quit.

This will spare the banks contract termination compensation for employees as the latter voluntarily ask to leave.

From the view of the new bosses, personnel restructuring is inevitable in bank mergers.

“We will have two to three accounting departments after a merger so we must reduce the headcount to cut costs,” said Vo Tan Hoang Van, general director of Saigon Commercial Bank.

“Employees who fail to meet new requirements will ask to leave on their own, so we are not the one to lay them off.”

Last month saw Mekong Housing Bank merged with the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, and PGBank with VietinBank.

Sacombank is expected to take over Southern Bank soon as their deal has already been approved by the State Bank of Vietnam.

Other previous mergers include Dai A Bank – HDBank, Habubank – SHB, and SCB – Tin Nghia – De Nhat.

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Mergers spanut bankers on brink of layoffs in Vietnam

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