(22 March 2006 – Vietnam) Singaporean bank OCBC is set to take a 10 percent stake in Vietnam’s Joint Stock Commercial Bank for S$25 million.OCBC joins foreign banks such as ANZ and Standard Chartered in having a stake in one of Vietnam’s banks.
The 10 percent stake is the maximum a foreign bank can currently have in a Vietnamese bank but this is expected to alter when Vietnam joins the World Trade Organisation, tipped for later this year.
OCBC flagged significant growth opportunities in Vietnam, a country with 83 million people and Asia’s second highest GDP growth after China.