Top Thai bank closes Hanoi, Yangon branches<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand's second largest commercial bank is to
\nshut representative offices in Vietnam and Myanmar next week to
\ncut costs as the institution is battered by the regional slump,
\nreports said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Thai Farmers' Bank will close the offices in Hanoi and Yangon
\nas \"the number of Thais wanting to do business in both nations
\nhas dropped because of the economic crisis,\" it reportedly said.<\/p>\n
Representative offices, which do not offer the full services
\noffered by banking branches, do not directly generate income as
\ntheir role is to advise customers in host countries.<\/p>\n
However the offices can be expensive to set up and maintain --
\nthe bank's Myanmar office costs an estimated 3,000 to 4,000
\ndollars a month to run, not including staff salaries, the Bangkok
\nPost said.<\/p>\n
Other Thai banks including Thai Military Bank and Siam City
\nBank are also reducing the number of staff in foreign offices and
\nrecalling Thai personnel to lower operating costs, the newspaper
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Thai Farmers' and other banks are unsure as to whether
\nMyanmar's military government will allow foreign banks to open
\nfull branches, making the investment in representative offices
\nhard to justify, it said.<\/p>\n
Thai Farmers Bank was the second Thai bank to open a
\nrepresentative office in Yangon in 1994 amid plans by the Myanmar
\ngovernment to allow foreign joint ventures in the banking sector.<\/p>\n
But the plan was later called off after the authorities
\nappeared to baulk at the idea of fully opening up the market.<\/p>\n
The bank has said it will \"consider applying for full branch
\nlicenses (in Vietnam and Myanmar) in the future, when both
\nnations have a policy to allow commercial banks to operate as
\nfull branches.\"<\/p>\n
Thai Farmers will however retain 13 other representative
\noffices abroad, many of them in Asia, The Post said.<\/p>",
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