On July 1st, Aozora Bank (AOZ) made a symbolic donation to the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan an amount of 5 million yen (equivalent to USD 45.000 ) to support the Government's COVID-19 vaccine fund of Vietnam.

Takeshi Ito, CEO of AOZ Investment and Consulting Department, Member of the Board of Directors of OCB, supported the COVID-19 vaccine fund at the Vietnam - Japan Embassy.

Speaking at the event, Takeshi Ito said: “Although the current pandemic is developing very complicatedly, we appreciate that the Vietnamese government has controlled it very well with extremely strict disease prevention plans and the much less number of infections compared to Japan. Through the connection from OCB, we have decided to contribute a part of the funding to Vietnam's COVID-19 vaccine fund, with the desire to work together, and help Vietnam quickly stabilise and overcome this difficult period.”

Aozora is a Japanese bank established in 1957, currently headquartered in Tokyo. Participating in operations in Vietnam since 1997, until June 2020, Aozora became a strategic shareholder of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB), one of the most efficient banks in Vietnam, through owning 15% shares. This deal was honoured in the Top 10 typical investment and M&A deals of 2020.

AOZ and OCB has signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Accordingly, AOZ commits to long-term investment in OCB by sending experts to participate in governance and operations, business development support, retail operations, risk management, business improvement high-tech and digital banking enhancing. At the same time, the two banks will collaborate in providing financial services for Japanese enterprises operating in the Vietnamese market.

On the side of OCB – AOZ’s strategic partner in Vietnam, from the beginning of 2021 until now, in the face of the complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank has been actively responding to the policy of the SBV in accompanying and supporting customers to overcome difficulties through preferential interest rate programs, reducing and extending loan repayment periods; providing timely capital for customers to continue to operate their business.

Also, according to OCB’s representative of the Board of Management, the bank will continue to carry out activities to support the prevention of COVID-19 at the call of the Government of Vietnam in the future.