SeABank ranks first in Top 10 Listed Mid-cap Companies with Best Corporate Governance at VLCA 2024

New achievement for Corporate Governance 

On the roadmap to SeABank’s sustainable development strategy focusing on ESG, corporate governance enhancement is the core and foundation for a comprehensive sustainable development.

Following this direction, SeABank focuses on optimizing its sustainable model of corporate governance, thus driving sustainable growth while guaranteeing rights and benefits of stakeholders. As a result, SeABank has surpassed strict rounds and more than 500 companies to rank 1st in “Top 10 Listed Mid-cap Companies with Best Corporate Governance”. At the same time, SeABank is listed in "Top 10 Best Annual Reports by Listed Companies (Financial sector)" for its 2023 publication.

“Vietnam Listed Company Awards 2024” is jointly organized by Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), Vietnam Investment Review (VIR) and Dragon Capital Vietnam; with an aim to improve the quality of corporate governance, encourage obligations of information disclosure and good ESG practices. Accordingly, the program officially vote and honor on 3 categories: Corporate Governance, Annual Report and Sustainable Development Report. Each one has a separate strict process with different criteria and Voting Council, with in-depth technical support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), and 04 leading international auditing firms. 

“Achieving double awards out of 3 categories at VLCA 2024, especially the leading position in Corporate Governance, is an important recognition for SeABank’s advancement in optimizing its sustainable model of corporate governance. The Annual Report award further reflects SeABank’s proactiveness in upholding transparency, adhering to domestic regulations and international practices. This is an affirmation for the Bank’s market position, reputation and rentless efforts in guaranteeing rights and benefits of shareholders and investors” – said Mr. Fergus Macdonald Clark, independent member of SeABank’s BOD, who has extensive experience on risk management and sustainable development. 

Strengthening governance to drive sustainability

Since the early days, SeABank has been one of the pioneering banks in sustainable development, focusing on enhancing corporate governance as a premise for growth momentum. Such a firm foundation for growth is consolidated through applying good Vietnamese and international practices, improving governance structure, and optimizing model of corporate governance, thereby guaranteeing the rights and benefits of shareholders, customers and stakeholders.

Accordingly, SeABank pioneered in applying good international practices on corporate governance such as Corporate Governance Codes by IFC, G20/OECD, ASEAN Governance Scorecard, etc. The Bank also implemented Basel III risk management standards and completed all three pillars of Basel II before deadline to guarantee capital adequacy and liquidity. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS9) is also applied early in financial report management; while the 3-line model is implemented together with COSO framework to minimize risks based on automatic functions of self-checking, monitoring and cross-checking among lines.

Regarding reporting and information disclosure, SeABank has applied international frameworks by IFC, Basel III, IFRS, etc. The Bank also focuses on improving the quality of Annual report, Governance report, and Sustainable development report based on Vietnamese regulations and international frameworks such as GRI, thereby guaranteeing information transparency for the sake of stakeholders.
With the above efforts, SeABank has its 2024 credit ratings maintained at Ba3 with a Stable outlook by Moody's, reflecting high capitalization and stable asset quality. Accordingly, SeABank has been entrusted with and received investments totaling more than US$ 850 million from international institutions such as DFC, IFC, AIIB, Norfund, etc. This also helped SeABank with enhanced capital and professional technical support, thereby driving sustainable growth in the upcoming period. 

Pursuing its sustainable development strategy, SeABank will continue to improve the overall efficiency of Banking governance, Risk management, Human resource capacity improvement, Coporate culture, Social security and Social environment. In this way, the Bank aims for a solid governance foundation, which facilitates sustainable business that bringing values to customers, shareholders and relevant stakeholders.