Speaking at the launching ceremony, the bank’s representatives said with the launch, Woori Bank will boost the retail business and target becoming the top foreign credit bank in the Vietnamese market. Woori Bank has been operating transaction offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City since 1997 and 2005, respectively.
The bank will expand its sales network by establishing transaction offices in Bac Ninh province and Hai Phong city in the north, and the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong within this year.
As planned, the bank will subsequently add 5-7 transaction more offices each year to expand its network to 20 branches across the country. In addition, Woori Bank is working with Woori Card to enter the Vietnamese credit card market in the first half of 2017.
Woori Bank also said that it plans to connect various deposit and loan products, including mortgage, credit loan and bank assurance, offering comprehensive financial services to Vietnamese customers in order to expand its local customer base.
Founded in 1899 in Seoul, Woori Bank is one of the leading investment banks in Asia and the largest lender by assets in the Republic of Korea. Besides Vietnam, Woori Bank is running businesses in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Finland and Germany. It has recently acquired Philippines’ Wealth Development Bank and is growing its sales network across the Philippines.
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.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) approved Woori Bank to establish a bank with 100% foreign capital in Vietnam in early August, 2016. Vietnam now has one state-owned bank, 37 joint stock commercial banks, six wholly foreign-owned ones - HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ, South Korea's Shinhan Bank, Malaysia's Hong Leong Bank Berhad, and Public Bank Berhad - and nearly 100 branches and representative offices of foreign banks.
More foreign banks are expected to enter Vietnam’s market, especially following the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community late last year. By 2020, in accordance with the commitment to the World Trade Organisation, Vietnam will have to completely open the door of its banking sector.
According to Mr. Keith Pogson, managing partner of EY’s Financial Services in the Asia Pacific region, Vietnam’s economic development and deeper international trade integration are also factors that help Vietnamese banking sector become attractive to overseas investors.
Mr.David Hovenden, Strategy& Managing Director, South East Asia - part of the PwC network said Vietnam has been ranked third in the region for the attractiveness of its banking market. It will bring more challenges to domestic banks.
Most of Vietnamese banks have seen Japanese lenders as their biggest competitors while others have considered European banks their key rivals. However, Mr.Keith Pogson said major threats to local banks could come from within Southeast Asia, which has many strong players in the field of retail banking.
Experts said 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.
