The Bank for Foreign Trade of VietNam (Vietcombank), one of the five largest commercial joint stock banksin the country, approved a plan to merge with another local institutionduring an extraordinary general meeting held last week. The merging ofthe two institutions aims to make Vietcombank the country's leading bankin terms of both scale and quality.
If Vietcombank's plan comesto fruition, it will debut a new merge model for the banks in thecountry. Only troubled banks were merged in the past.
Vietcombankhas yet to reveal the local institution with which it will merge.However, a source close to the situation told the Saigon Times that itis eyeing a small bank in HCM City .
The source alsodisclosed that Vietcombank plans to sign a merger deal with Saigon Bankfor Industry and Trade (SaigonBank). An State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)official has confirmed the plan, sharing that the central bank approvedthe plan in principle.
The official said that the two banks willsubmit their merger plan to the SBV for approval after theirshareholders agree on the terms. The two can only proceed with the planafter obtaining approval from the central bank. Share pricing is one ofthe key issues of the negotiations between the two banks.
TheVietnam Economic Times reported that apart from Vietcombank, a smallbank in HCM City also revealed that it could merge with the Bankfor Investment and Development of Vietnam in the future.
Vietnam currently has nearly 40 banks, which will be reduced toroughly 20 through M&A by 2017. This will happen based on thebanking sector’s restructuring strategy approved by the Government.-VNA