Largest Insurer Plans to Set up Commercial Bank

Largest Insurer Plans to Set up Commercial Bank

State-owned Bao Viet, the largest insurance firm in Vietnam, said it is planning to open a commercial bank after it receives a license from the government to become a financial and insurance corporation, Tuoi Tre newspaper said Tuesday.

The corporation will submit its plan on developing into a financial and insurance group to the Ministry of Finance and Government for approval in late June.

Bao Viet general director, Trinh Thanh Hoan, said the bank will be named Bao Viet Commercial Bank, however, the corporation has not decided which form its new bank will operate.

“We are currently weighing up the options between a joint stock bank and a 100 per cent State-owned bank,” Hoan said.

The corporation plans to operate with a chartered capital of VND5 trillion (US$318 million) as a life insurer, a non-life insurer, a securities company, a fund management company, and a bank.

Bao Viet still leads Vietnam’s insurance market, securing 40 per cent of the life insurance market share and 41.7 per cent of the non-life market by the end of 2004.

Youth