OCBC Bank Opens Myanmar Branch in Yangon
The Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, aka OCBC Bank, has expanded its presence in Myanmar -formerly Burma – with the opening of its branch in the country’s former capital city of Yangon.
Under economic reforms that began in 2011, Myanmar granted nine foreign banks licences to operate in the country on a provisional basis. Three – OCBC, Japan’s Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp – were recently given approval to begin operations.
With the new branch, OCBC said it will offer a full range of banking services, which include cash management and project financing. It will also provide treasury and capital markets advisory and services to both foreign companies and domestic banks in Myanmar.
“Our mission is to help our customers, all across the region – in Greater China, in Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia – all of our customers have been caught up with the promise of Myanmar,” said OCBC’s global commercial banking head Linus Goh.
“And so what we hope to do is to be able to help these customers come into this country and successfully engage with Myanmar businesses to build successful businesses from here.”
OCBC Yangon will focus on financing in telecommunications, power, infrastructure, real estate, and increasingly the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods.
The six other foreign banks which were granted provisional licences in Myanmar, which include Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), are expected to go through the process of finalising them over the coming months.