Vietcombank opens first overseas subsidiary in Laos

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) opened its first overseas subsidiary in Vientiane, Laos, on October 19.

Vietcombank opens its first overseas subsidiary in Vientiane, Laos, on October 19. (Photo: NDO)
Vietcombank opens its first overseas subsidiary in Vientiane, Laos, on October 19. (Photo: NDO)

Located on Lane Xang Avenue, a finance-banking hub in downtown Vientiane, the Vietcombank Laos chapter has a charter capital of US$80 million, the highest among Vietnamese credit institutions in the country.

Aiming at connecting Vietnamese and Lao financial markets, the recently opened bank offers finance and investment service packages to Vietnamese investors in Laos and Lao businesses.

Vietcombank is completing procedures to open a representative office in the US and a branch in Australia. Currently, it has more than 500 branches, representative offices, and member companies in Vietnam and overseas; with over 2,100 agencies established across 131 countries and territories.

The bank posted a pre-tax profit of over VND7.72 trillion (US$336.2 million) in the first half of this year, up 52.7% year-on-year. It looks to expand the figure to VND13 trillion (US$566.15 million) by year’s end, up 14.6% against 2017.

Recently, Vietcombank has become the first bank in Vietnam to meet the SWIFT Global Payments Innovation Initiative (GPI) standards, which makes the bank ready to provide comprehensive solutions to satisfy clients’ demand in payments and money transfers.