The bank made a recent announcement that chairman Nguyen Quoc Toan has authorised standing vice chairman Tran Ngo Phuc Vu, to handle all his duties. The bank did not reveal if or when Toan would return to his post once the dispute is sorted out.

According to the bank’s announcement, Toan’s family has decided to go to court over an inheritance dispute concerning shareholdings in the bank. The dispute has been festering within the family for several years, after Tran Thi Huong, founder of Nam A Bank and Toan’s mother, died in 2017.

Specifically, Toan’s father and Huong’s husband, Nguyen Chan, filed a claim in March accusing his son of "abusing his position to dishonestly appropriate assets" that belonged to Chan and his wife. These were shares in Nam A Bank and Hoan Cau Group, a multi-sector corporation that invests in banking, real estate, etc., that Huong had also founded.

According to Chan, when Tran Thi Huong fell ill in 2016, she appointed Toan to manage Nam A Bank and Hoan Cau Group. However, Toan colluded with some individuals and immediately abused his position to appropriate his parents’ shares, which he estimates to have been worth VND30 trillion ($1.3 billion) at the time. 

He had transferred the ownership of the said shares under the name of these individuals, in order to appropriate them, Chan said. Currently, Toan holds 4.5 percent of shares in Nam A Bank.

"We clearly affirm that these are internal civil disputes, completely unrelated to banking operations. Banking activities remain stable and liquid. Since 2018, the bank is seeing a strong growth phase, after 3 years of focusing on restructuring and recovering bad debts," said Tran Ngoc Tam, general director of Nam A Bank.

As of the first quarter this year, Nam A Bank recorded total assets of over VND75 trillion ($3.24 billion), up 32 precent over 2018. Profit before tax reached over VND300 billion ($12.96 million), almost double compared to the same period last year and reaching 38 percent of its yearly target.