Vietnam's restructuring produces first bank merger

The State Bank of Vietnam's master plan to restructure the banking system initiated in April has produced its first merger.

It gave the final approval for the SHB and Habubank merger.

The Habubank brand will now be removed from the market, and the merged bank will continue operating under SHB’s name.

The merger was done through the initiative of Habubank, and is the second merger the system has witnessed since 2011, after Ficombank, TinNghiaBank and Saigon Commercial Bank were ordered to merge with each other in December.

SHB, fully known as the Saigon – Hanoi Bank Commercial Joint Stock Bank, will begin merging Habubank’s branches, network, and workforce into its system in the following days, the bank’s CEO, Nguyen Van Le, told Tuoi Tre.

The post-merger SHB will have 54 branches and 150 transaction offices countrywide, and some 5,000 bankers and employees, added Le.

It will have total assets of VND132 trillion, or US$6.33 billion, with total registered capital amounting to VND9 trillion, enabling SHB to become one of the country’s eight largest banks by assets.

The two banks held a shareholder meeting last April, after which SHB began to take over management activities in Habubank.

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