Fri, 24 Apr, 2015 12:00:58 AM FTimes- Xinhua Report , Apr. 24
First three foreign banks out of nine, which won licenses in Myanmar to open branches, have started their banking businesses in Yangon respectively, according to bankers' circle.
The three banks, which opened their branches to operate banking business on Wednesday and Thursday, are Bank of Tokyo Mitshubishi UFJ Ltd (BTMU) and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) of Japan and Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) of Singapore.
The three banks will provide full banking services including deposit, loan, and foreign exchange to foreign companies and domestic banks operating in Myanmar.
Nine foreign banks including the three were awarded by the Myanmar government in October last year for service operation licenses in the country for the first time in more than five decades.
The nine foreign banks include three from Japan, two from Singapore and one each from China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia-New Zealand.
These banks are allowed to operate wholesale banking and to lend money to foreign investment companies and local banks.
The foreign banks would also be allowed to lend money to local companies through local banks or to lend a syndicated loan to local companies in cooperation with local banks.
The approved banks were short listed from 25 which bid for the licenses in the first phase of selection in July last year.
There were 43 foreign bank representative offices stationed in Myanmar up to 2014, of which 25 made the bid for banking licenses.
For the past decades, Myanmar allowed foreign banks to open representative offices only in the country for observation without permission to operate banking services.
Meanwhile, there are also 25 local private and four state-owned banks in the country. More News
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