HÀ NỘI — The Republic of Korea’s Woori Bank on Monday held a launch ceremony to officially set up the wholly foreign-owned bank in Việt Nam.

Speaking at the ceremony, the bank’s representatives said with the launch, Woori Bank would boost the retail business and target becoming the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnamese market.

As planned, the bank will expand its sales network by establishing transaction offices in the northern regions of Bắc Ninh Province and Hải Phòng City, and the southern provinces of Đồng Nai and Bình Dương within this year. Woori Bank has been operating transaction offices in Hà Nội and HCM City since 1997 and 2005, respectively.

The bank will subsequently add 5-7 transaction more offices each year to expand its network to 20 branches across the country.

It is also working with Woori Card to enter the Vietnamese credit card market in the first half of 2017.

Besides this, to expand the local customer base, it plans to connect various deposit and loan products, including mortgage, credit loan and bank assurance, offering comprehensive financial services to Vietnamese customers.

Founded in 1899 in capital Seoul, Woori Bank is one of the leading investment banks in Asia and the largest lender by assets in the Republic of Korea. It has been running businesses in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Finland and Germany. Notably, it has also expanded the “New Asia Credit System,” which is focusing on Southeast Asia, thus aiming to be among Asia’s top 10 and global top 50 financial institutions.

Việt Nam, currently, has six wholly foreign-owned banks. They are HSBC Việt Nam, ANZ Việt Nam, Standard Chartered Việt Nam and Hong Leong Việt Nam, as well as Shinhan Việt Nam and Public Bank Berhad.

According to experts, more foreign banks are expected to enter Việt Nam’s market, especially following the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community late last year.

They recommend that Vietnamese banks must operate on a larger scale, with huge investments in technology and products through consolidations and mergers to create better and stronger banks that can compete with foreign banks.

By 2020, in accordance with the commitment to the World Trade Organisation, Việt Nam will have to completely open the doors of its banking sector. — VNS