[Vnbiz] ABN AMRO says disputed Vietnam forex trades valid

[Phan, Tai]

Tuesday August 8, 6:19 PM
ABN AMRO says disputed Vietnam forex trades valid
HONG KONG, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Dutch bank ABN AMRO said on Tuesday that foreign currency trades at the centre of a dispute with Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam (Incombank) are valid. 
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that ABN, the Netherlands' biggest bank, had been sued by Incombank over foreign currency trading that the Vietnamese bank says caused losses of $5.4 million. 

"ABN AMRO believes the trades were valid and all the trades were settled," an ABN AMRO spokeswoman told Reuters by e-mail. 

The newspaper said Incombank, one of Vietnam's four main state-owned banks, claims the losses came from speculative currency trades that ABN executed for an employee of the Vietnamese bank. 

Incombank has said the employee, who was arrested in March, was not authorised to conduct any foreign currency transactions, so ABN AMRO traders should not have executed the trades and the company should cover the losses, the FT reported. 

The lawsuit has set off alarm bells in the fast-growing country's international banking community, the FT said.