Foreign banks to start operations in Myanmar
Myanmar will allow selected foreign banks to start offering limited financial services in the country by 2014, a senior central bank official said according to Reuters.
Thirty-four international banks have representative offices in the country, but they have thus far been forbidden from opening branches or offering services other than advising clients. According to a decades-old plan, the government will eventually allow them to form joint ventures with local banks before allowing them to open independent branches.
The central bank is now formulating a plan to speed up the process by letting a select number of foreign banks begin operating in 2014 in “certain areas of banking services”. But authorities have yet to decide how they would chose among the foreign banks with representative offices, which include Standard Chartered, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, or ANZ.
Foreign banks could also help jumpstart economic development by providing access to much-needed financing for corporate clients.
Myanmar will allow selected foreign banks to start offering limited financial services in the country by 2014, a senior central bank official said according to Reuters. Thirty-four international banks have representative offices in the country, but they have thus far been forbidden from opening branches or offering services other than advising clients. According to a decades-old plan, the government will eventually allow them to form joint ventures with local banks before allowing them to open independent branches. The central bank is now formulating a plan to speed up the process by letting a select number of foreign banks begin operating...
Myanmar will allow selected foreign banks to start offering limited financial services in the country by 2014, a senior central bank official said according to Reuters.
Thirty-four international banks have representative offices in the country, but they have thus far been forbidden from opening branches or offering services other than advising clients. According to a decades-old plan, the government will eventually allow them to form joint ventures with local banks before allowing them to open independent branches.
The central bank is now formulating a plan to speed up the process by letting a select number of foreign banks begin operating in 2014 in “certain areas of banking services”. But authorities have yet to decide how they would chose among the foreign banks with representative offices, which include Standard Chartered, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, or ANZ.
Foreign banks could also help jumpstart economic development by providing access to much-needed financing for corporate clients.
