Acts facing hundreds of millions of VND in fines
Decree 340/2025/ND-CP spans from violations of licenses, management and administration, capital contribution - share purchase, capital mobilization, lending, foreign exchange, gold... to banking information technology. For each field, the penalty level is designed to be large enough to force organizations and individuals to consider before implementation.
Article 7 stipulates violations of licenses issued by the State Bank and prohibited acts, banks without licenses, using names and contents other than licenses, lending, leasing, buying and selling licenses, fraudulent dossiers for licensing applications... may be fined from 150 - 500 million VND, with the risk of being requested to revoke licenses.
According to Article 8 of this Decree, changes in name, headquarters location, establishment of branches, listing of shares abroad, establishment of subsidiaries, participation in international payment systems... without written approval from the State Bank of Vietnam are all fined from 50 - 500 million VND.
The appointment and election of bank leaders who do not meet the standards, or are not dismissed when they no longer meet the conditions, may be fined up to 250 million VND, and at the same time forced to dismiss and dismiss violators.
With the activity of receiving deposits, interest rates, service fees - contents directly related to people's pockets, the new Decree also "sets a clear barrier".
Article 16 clearly states that acts such as not listing, unclearly listing interest rates, collecting incorrect fees, applying interest rates and fees not at the listed level may be fined up to 100 million VND and forced to return all the interest and fees collected incorrectly to customers.
Receiving deposits from the wrong subjects, in violation of regulations; issuing incorrect deposit confirmations... fined up to 150 million VND.
lending regardless, selling wrong bonds, having to "take bitter medicine"
Credit activities, considered the "heart" of banks, are now tightened by a series of sanctions from light to very heavy.
In Article 17 of Decree No. 340/2025/ND-CP, a fine of 10 - 30 million VND applies to each act such as not fully storing loan documents, not providing clear information to customers, not training staff, not checking and supervising loan capital, illegal debt collection,...
In Clause 5, Article 17, acts of granting credit without contracts, lending to wrong subjects, lending "backyard" to enjoy illegal incentives, lending for prohibited legal purposes... are fined from 40 - 50 million VND.
For more serious violations such as exceeding credit limits, lending to invest in stocks, corporate bonds not in accordance with conditions, lending to groups of subjects contrary to the provisions of the Law on Credit Institutions, the fine is up to 300 million VND and may be suspended from lending to invest abroad.
Regarding corporate bonds - a sector that has caused many consequences, Decree 340 requires banks to appraise and closely monitor cash flow.
According to Article 20, in cases of not supervising the use of bond issuance money, buying bonds for businesses to restructure debt, "pump" capital around, or buying bonds that have been changed by businesses when credit ratings do not meet requirements, they may be fined up to 150 million VND.
Banks selling bonds to their own subsidiaries, or buying convertible bonds, bonds with warrants in violation of regulations, in addition to fines, must also buy back the sold bonds, are not allowed to convert bonds into shares and may be considered for suspension or dismissal of related leaders.
