|
Banks still opening more branches despite warnings
There has been no comprehensive study to answer the question: “How many banks would be enough for Vietnam?” As of August 2008, Vietnam had five state-owned banks with 4,000 branches, five joint-venture banks, 36 joint-stock banks, 44 foreign bank branches, one central credit fund with 30 branches in 25 provinces and cities and 998 local credit funds.
Nguyen Dai Lai, Deputy Director of the Banking Development Strategy Department under the State Bank of Vietnam, said that the banks’ network has reached to communes and villages.
Lai said that HCM City has 500 wards, while it has 1,000 transaction points.
Banks are still moving ahead with plans to open more branches. Lien Viet Bank now has two branches in HCM City and three in Hanoi after four months of operation. The bank plans to have 17 transaction points nationwide by the end of 2008 (one transaction exchange, five branches and 11 transaction offices).
To date, Techcombank has 132 transaction points nationwide with 3,000 staffs. The bank expects to have 170 transaction points nationwide by the end of the year.
After opening a lot of branches in June and July, VP Bank now has 132 branches and transaction offices. Eximbank reportedly has 70 transaction points. Habubank has announced a plan to raise the number of its transaction points to 40.
There are several ‘banking streets’ in Hanoi. Lang Ha street, for example, now has 8-10 bank branches. A newly-opened route in Hanoi, Kim Lien-O Cho Dua, has also become a banking street with nearly 20 branches and transaction points. Tran Quang Khai street has nearly ten banks and bank branches. In Hoan Kiem district, VP Bank alone has eight transaction points, while main roads like Ba Trieu and Hoang Quoc Viet have numerous bank transaction points.
In HCM City, Ben Chuong Duong and Nguyen Cong Tru are considered banking streets since they gather a lot of bank transaction points. Several streets have become banking streets recently, like Le Dai Hanh. There were only 1-2 bank branches on the street two years ago, but 10 more branches have popped up since.
The director of a joint-stock bank said that banks are now rushing to open more banks in an effort to conquer the market. Some branches have not been operating well, but banks do not want to close them.
VNN
|
