Northern Europe’s largest bank invited to support restructuring of Vietnam banks

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has invited SEB, the largest bank in Northern Europe with total assets of nearly $339 billion, to engage in restructuring weak banks in Vietnam.

The PM made the proposal on Wednesday while receiving Marcus Wallenber, chairman of Sweden’s Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) Group, which owns SEB bank, during his working trip to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF-54).

“Vietnam encourages the engagement of organizations with financial potential, experience and support capabilities,” Chinh said, asking SEB to support Vietnam's financial market, policy making and restructuring of weak banks.

Wallenberg expressed his desire to invest in Vietnam, saying that in the immediate future, SEB will organize a Nordic business conference in Hanoi to continue to explore investment cooperation opportunities, especially in industrial development, digital transformation, and sustainable development.

PM Chinh said that the growing Vietnam-Sweden relations are an important favourable foundation for businesses from both sides to boost investment cooperation. He suggested SEB coordinate with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment to organize conferences connecting Vietnamese and Northern European businesses and localities, especially in the fields of green transition, digital transformation, and circular economy development.

Currently, five banks are under special control in Vietnam, including Construction Bank (CB), OceanBank, GPBank, DongA Bank and Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB). The restructuring of weak banks is facing difficulties in finding voluntary investors.

Previously, Mizuho – one of the three largest banks in Japan – was also invited by PM Chinh to participate in restructuring Vietnam's weak banks on the occasion of his working trip to attend the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation in Japan in late 2023.

PM Chinh attended the WEF-54 in Davos, Switzerland from January 16-18 under the theme “Rebuilding Trust”. The WEF-54 brought together more than 2,800 leaders from 120 countries.

Vietnam and the WEF set up relations in 1989. The WEF often invites Vietnam to attend its annual meetings in Davos and WEF conferences on East Asia.