Foreign banks are allowed to open representative offices, set up joint ventures or wholly foreign-owned banks in Viet Nam or buy shares from local joint-stock commercial banks.

Under a dispatch sent by the Government Office on Mar. 20, PM Nguyen Tan Dung also required the SBV to promptly implement essential tasks geared to further develop banking operations in a safe and sustainable manner in the context of international economic integration.

Accordingly, violations must be strictly and publicly punished in order to prevent corruption in the banking system, particularly in licensing the establishment of commercial banks, the opening of representative offices, the increase of chartered capital, and the purchase of shares of local commercial banks by foreign investors, the dispatch stated./.