Myanmar to grant permission to more foreign banks

YANGON: The Central Bank of Myanmar will grant permission to more foreign banks to operate in Myanmar next July, an official media reported Friday. The foreign banks and banks which have opened representative offices in the country as well as other banks can apply for opening their branches in Myanmar, said the Global New Light of Myanmar. The Central Bank will distribute the proposal forms to foreign banks in early July. Banks from neighboring countries and close economic partners will be favored this time. In September, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) which is the first Chinese-invested commercial bank operating in Myanmar and the Bank of China, one of the five biggest state-owned commercial banks in China, opened their representative offices in Yangon, adding to dozens of foreign bank offices in the country. Of 43 foreign bank representative offices stationed in Myanmar, nine including ICBC, have been awarded service licenses in October last year, the first in more than five decades. (Courtesy of The Financial Express BD)