Yangon Branch
Shinhan said on Sept. 20 that it has opened its Yangon branch in Myanmar to start its operation for customers for the first time as a Korean Bank.
Myanmar has drawn keen attention as an emerging market since it started economic opening and pushed reforms toward democratization in 2011. In the wake of the general election democratically held in November, 2015 and peaceful change of government in April, 2016, international organizations like IMF forecast that the country, as a newly emerging market, will show the highest growth rate in the world in the coming years.
Shinhan Bank set up its representative office in Myanmar in 2013 to extend its presence into the market, and then in March this year, it won a preliminary license needed to open a branch for the first time as a Korean bank. And in line with getting the final approval of opening the bank from Myanmar’s banking authority on September 15, it set up a branch in Yangon, an economic hub in Myanmar, to start offering services for customers from Sept. 20.
“The branch allows Shinhan Bank to provide various services including overseas remittance in dollars, trade settlements, loans in dollars, and establishment of accounts in local currency, which have caused inconvenience for Korean companies,” an official at Shinhan Bank, adding, “Economic exchange including mutual trading between two countries as well as Korean firms’ inroads into the Myanmar market is expected to be more vigorous.”
With the Yangon branch, Shinhan Bank, the flagship bank of Korea’s leading banking unit Shinhan Financial Group, has secured a global network of 147 branches in 20 countries, completing its Asian financial belt ranging from Philippine, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and to Myanmar.”