Junta holds Myanma Foreign Trade Bank chair, executives for questioning

Myanmar’s military council has summoned several senior managers of the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) for questioning in Yangon since last week, according to a banking sector source. The junta is investigating MFTB managing director and chair Kay Thi, deputy general manager Aung Ko Oo, assistant manager Aye Aye Khaing, and Kay Thi’s personal assistant Myat Hsu in connection with the bank’s lending to export businesses, a source connected to the banking community told Myanmar Now. “I can confirm that they were detained and are being questioned. It’s roughly something to do with export loans, based on a complaint submitted by another business. They took them in a police vehicle,” the banking source said on condition of anonymity. The source, who is based in Yangon, added that Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB) chair Win Win Maw was currently overseeing operations at MFTB. Myanmar Now reached the MFTB branch near Sule Pagoda in Yangon’s Kyauktada Township by phone with enquiries about the detention of the bank managers, but the operator who answered said she was not authorised to comment on the matter. An employee of the ministry of planning and finance, who also spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity, confirmed he had heard about a current investigation into MFTB executives but did not have detailed information. Kay Thi became MFTB’s managing director in June of 2018. She is also the chair of the bank’s nine-member board, according to the MFTB website. An MFTB foreign currency exchange counter in Yangon in July 2022 (Myanmar Now) MFTB is one of four major state-owned banks controlled by the junta-controlled ministry of planning and finance since the 2021 military coup, along with the MICB, Myanma Economic Bank, and Myanma Agricultural Development Bank. The United States (US) government designated the MFTB and MICB as sanctioned entities in June 2023 due to their instrumental role in the military regime’s use of foreign currency for international transactions including arms purchases. After the designation of sanctions, a coalition of civil society groups wrote to Bank of America, the United Kingdom-based Standard Chartered Bank, and other international financial institutions to enquire about alleged links to the sanctioned banks, asking what steps they were taking to avoid facilitating the junta’s access to international banking services. Standard Chartered Bank responded denying any ties to the Myanmar banks, according to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. In an August 2023 press statement responding to the sanctions, the junta claimed the US was “unilaterally” blocking business with the banks, impacting Myanmar’s public health, education, infrastructure, and access to foreign currency, harming Myanmar-based international traders and people using foreign banking services. The military council has cracked down on prominent business owners in various sectors in recent months with the ostensible aim of stabilising Myanmar’s economy. The regime announced plans at the beginning of July to take actions against seven private banks for exceeding lending limits. Myanmar Now reported on July 9 that authorities had detained eight director-level executives and Serge Pun, the owner of one of the seven targeted financial institutions, in connection with illegal money transfers to Thailand to aid in a real estate purchasing scheme. The military council, which held a meeting with prominent bank executives in Naypyitaw on July 10, has been pressuring banks to comply more strictly with lending limits and capital reserve requirements. The recent crackdown on banks, currency exchange brokers, and other businesses is thought to be part of an effort to rein in rampant inflation and stem the flow of money out of the country amid a decline in the value of the Myanmar kyat.

Junta holds Myanma Foreign Trade Bank chair, executives for questioning

The military’s investigations of major private banks have reportedly broadened to include MFTB, a sanctioned, state-owned bank instrumental to Myanmar’s procurement of foreign currency

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