Japan’s Gunma Bank to open representative office in Ho Chi Minh City

The Tokyo-headquartered Gunma Bank it will open the office this fiscal year to meet growing borrower interest in Vietnam. While Bank of Yokohama, another major bank in Japan, will close its representative office in London this month after opening a branch in Singapore in August.

The two Japanese lenders shifted resources from London and Hong Kong to Vietnam and Singapore, which have become new outposts for Japan regional banks.

These moves come at a time when the Japanese government is encouraging manufacturers to build factories in Southeast Asia in what is widely seen as a push to scale back overdependence on China.

Gunma Bank's one-person representative office in Vietnam's commercial capital will "focus on information gathering," according to the lender, to provide customers back home with knowledge of market conditions and administrative procedures.

Companies based in Japan's Gunma Prefecture include auto industry suppliers Sanden Holdings and Mitsuba, as well as Meisei Electric, which makes meteorological equipment and seismometers.

Meanwhile, the bank plans to downgrade its operations in Hong Kong, citing a decline in demand. A banking subsidiary is to be liquidated and replaced by a representative office. The Ho Chi Minh City office will be Gunma Bank's fifth international location and fourth in Asia.

The bank's only other overseas branch is in Shanghai. It will rely on Japanese partner Chiba Bank's London branch to handle operations that had been served by its office in the British capital.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review