2:21:45 PM | 10/3/2008
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) said it officially received the approval in principle from Vietnam's government Tuesday to open its wholly-owned subsidiary in the rapidly growing Southeast Asian economy.
The bank has become the second British bank to get the nod from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who is on a visit to the UK, to set up offshoot in Vietnam after HSBC, which got the permission a day earlier.
“Full approval would enable us to rapidly grow our distribution network across Vietnam and provide a new range of innovative consumer and SMEs with banking products and services,” said CEO of SCB Vietnam Ashok Sud.
Ray Ferguson, SCB regional CEO in Southeast Asia, said in a statement “SCB considers Vietnam a key growth market in Asia and believes it will have an increasingly powerful economic role in the region. We are strongly committed to the development of the banking industry in the country.”
During the Vietnamese PM's visit to the UK, Standard Chartered also inked huge business agreements with two Vietnamese state-owned corporations, including an MOU worth US$600 million with Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (Vietinbank) and another worth US$200 million with Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).
The Britain-based bank plans to open between 20 and 30 new branches in Vietnam over the next three to four years, Ferguson said. It now has offices and branches in Hanoi and HCM City. (Saigon Times Daily, New Hanoi)
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