Shareholders of PetroVietnam Finance Corporation (PVFC) at its annual general meeting last Saturday approved plans to transform the firm into a commercial joint stock bank and merge with Western Bank. The would-be bank will have a chartered capital of VND9 trillion and total assets of VND100 trillion. The capital consolidation is based on capital and assets of PVFC and Western Bank. Each PVFC share... 

Life insurer AIA Vietnam in the first quarter of the year saw the value of new business up 65% versus the same period of 2012 while its annualized new premiums increased 40%. In a statement released last Friday, Stephen Clark, CEO of AIA Vietnam, ascribed these results to an improvement of AIA Vietnam sales agents. Concerning the insurer’s development strategies in 2013 and following years, Clark... 

* BIDV, TienPhong Bank cooperation deal Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, or BIDV, has plans to inject over VND5.19 trillion into its charter capital this year by paying stock dividend and selling shares to existing shareholders. BIDV expects to spur its capital to VND28.2 trillion by the end of the year against the current level of VND23 trillion. To realize this target, the bank will... 

BIDV and VietinBank reduced their deposit rates on Thursday after Vietcombank had officially brought down its deposit rates on Monday, signaling lending rate cuts in the coming days. A press release from VietinBank says that the bank now quotes the interest rate for dong deposits of less than 12 months at 7% per annum, or 0.5 percentage point lower than the ceiling rate. Meanwhile, BIDV on Wednessday... 

The credit growth of the banking system started to show improvement in January-April, at 1.4%, though it was only 0.03% in the first quarter, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reports. The above credit growth is quite positive compared to a reduction of 0.2% in the same period in 2012. However, according to SBV, the credit improvement is still lower than the target. The low credit growth is often seen... 

Post & Telecommunication Insurance Joint Stock Corporation, or PTI, and Maritime Commercial Bank cut a deal last week to distribute home insurance product M-HomeCare. Maritime Bank under the agreement will become the sole distributor of the M-HomeCare product. Customers who buy this product will enjoy simple procedures, preferential insurance premiums and other assistances in home rentals and... 

Many banks have brought forward merger plans at their annual shareholders’ meetings, including several obvious deals to be carried out soon. The merger between Dai A Bank and HDBank has been approved by the central bank, said HDBank Chairwoman Le Thi Bang Tam at the recent shareholders’ meeting, where the proposal for this merger was passed. Similarly, the merger plans by Maritime Bank, Sacombank... 

Three different core-banking systems of Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), Ficombank and TinNghiaBank have been merged into one system at SCB. At a function on the completion of the Oracle Flexcube Corebanking project in HCMC last Saturday, SCB informed this is a step to upgrade the information technology system at the bank. According to SCB general director Le Khanh Hien, after the three lenders were merged... 

Japanese insurer Sumitomo Life has sent some members to join the board of directors of Bao Viet Holdings and dispatched a number of experts to learn about daily operations of the local firm to set up a long-term cooperation plan. Sumitomo Life has completed procedures to acquire an 18% stake in Bao Viet Holdings from HSBC, making it a foreign strategic partner of the local group. Speaking at the press... 

Vietnam Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) picked PwC Vietnam Co. Ltd. as the provider of core banking solutions through an agreement signed in Hanoi on Monday. According to VietinBank, core banking application is its key project but it has high risks and complications. VietinBank therefore has decided to hire the independent supervising and consulting unit for the success of the project. Ian...