Chairperson Lee Eog-weon of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said on the 24th that the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) Vietnam unit's securing of a full license from the local financial authorities for the first time in nine years "has established a solid base for domestic small and midsize enterprises that have entered the local market."
Accompanying President Lee Jae-myung on his trip to India and Vietnam, the Chairperson wrote the same day on X (formerly Twitter), "President Lee's state visit to Vietnam has further expanded the territory of K-finance."
The Chairperson said, "It is very is meaningful in that the Vietnam Central Bank has, for the first time in nine years across domestic and foreign banks, granted a license to a bank," adding, "Korea has achieved an overwhelming result as the country that has established the most banks and the second most foreign bank branches in Vietnam." Earlier, on Jan., the Korea Development Bank (KDB) Hanoi branch received a license for the first time in seven years.
News also came that the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute and the Vietnamese side signed a "QR code payment linkage" agreement. QR code payment linkage is a service that allows people in both countries to conveniently pay in the other country with their own domestic application (app) without currency exchange.
The Chairperson said, "Vietnam is the second most visited travel destination for our people," and predicted, "As in the earlier India case, the benefit of reducing fees by about 2 percentage points per transaction will make people's travels lighter and more convenient."
The Chairperson also said, "Vietnam is our key partner, with more than 10,000 of our corporations and 40 financial companies operating there," adding, "On the path of K-finance reaching out to a wider world, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) will be a running mate that runs alongside."