Interviews

Thursday, 10 December 2009 18:02
BCM NewsWire interviewed Ben Turnbull, who is the recently appointed CEO of Mongolia’s newly-formed State Bank. Mr. Turnbull previously worked in Mongolia’s banking sector, first starting in 2003 with Khan Bank as Deputy CEO for 4 years and more recently as a banking consultant through EBRD and Acting CEO of Zoos Bank from July 9th to November 20th. BCM spoke with Mr. Turnbull about the formation of the State Bank and the failure of the former Zoos Bank. ********** BCM: Can you elaborate on what happened with Zoos Bank? BT: There has been substantial stress in the Mongolian banking system overall and has been for the last nine months since the world financial crisis caught up with Mongolia. Specifically in the case of Zoos Bank, that strain began to show itself in the 1st and 2nd quarters. As a major investor with 25% 0f ohe equity, EBRD wanted to take an active role in addressing those problems and put a management team in, in conjunction with its existing ownership. We had been here already and working in the bank for some while. I have been here since March of 2008 as a consultant for SME activity and the others came in as part of what EBRD calls Institutional Building Plan consultancy which it started in December of 2008. This is normal procedure whenever EBRD invests in a financial institution in a developing market. They want to oversee re-structure and they normally put technical assistance money in to assist that process to help it move forward. The project was being carried out by Financial Access Consulting Services (FACS) from the Netherlands.
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Mongolia's Khan to Conquer New Territories

Business News Europe

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
October 3, 2008

Emigrating to outer Mongolia to manage a failed agricultural bank is hardly an obvious career move, but it worked for Peter Morrow. Eight years after he took the helm, Khan Bank is Mongolia's largest lender by assets and has expanded from its rural roots into corporate and institutional banking. International expansion is now on the agenda.

Khan Bank's origins go back to the Soviet-era State Bank of Mongolia, which was broken up in 1991. In the carve-up of the former monopoly, Khan Bank took over most of its offices in Mongolia's provincial capitals and rural areas. But the government's ambitious plans for a private sector banking industry collapsed in the 1990s with the failure of the entire system.

Morrow attributes this to a complete lack of experience. "Before 1991, there were no real banks, no understanding of credit risk or other issues, and no modern technology," he says. With 30 years in the banking industry under his belt, he was invited to take over Khan Bank in 2000, when it was already in receivership. The Mongolian government had decided the bank had to be kept alive because it was the only one with a sizeable presence in rural areas, where it handled tax collection, pensions distribution and other services.

Business Council of Mongolia