The United Overseas Bank Vietnam One Member Limited Liability Company (UOB Vietnam) has just announced that it has received a business registration license and will officially launch operations on July 2, 2018.
UOB Vietnam has the chartered capital of three trillion dong with a duration term of 99 years. This is the first Singaporean bank in Vietnam and the ninth 100 percent foreign owned bank in our country.
Earlier, in September 2017, in Hanoi, UBO was granted with license on establishment and operation.
Regarding operation fields, UOB Vietnam One Member Limited Liability Bank is allowed to carry out operations of a commercial bank in line with regulations of the law and the State Bank as stated the license.
Apart from UOB, Vietnam has eight 100 percent foreign owned banks operating in Vietnam including HSBC (Hongkong), ANZ (Australia), Standard Chartered, Shinhan Vietnam (South Korea), Hong Leong Bank (Malaysia member of Hong Leong group (Malaysia), Citibank, CIMB (Malaysia), Public Bank Berhad (Malaysia).
UOB is the first Singaporean Bank to set up a branch in Vietnam (since 1995). This bank is also quite knowledgeable of Vietnam market as it used to shake hands with domestic banks.
Specifically, UOB used to be strategic shareholder of SouthernBank (holding 20 percent stake). After SouthernBank merges into Sacombank, the ownership rate of UOB at Sacombank decreased to more than 3.3 percent.
UOB used to determine to acquire Global Petroleum Bank (PGBank). However, the negotiation failed at the final steps. Then, GPBank was acquired by the State Bank at zero dong.
