CBC’s first Myanmar branch is opened in Yangon on 23th April, Thursday. OCBC Yangon branch
has a registered capital of US$75 million (SG$102 million) and will focus on financing in telecommunications, power, infrastructure, real estate, and increasingly the distribution of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods. The new Branch has over 20 employees, more than half of whom are Myanmar nationals.
“Our mission is to help our customers, all across the region in Greater China, in Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia all of our customers have been caught up with the promise of Myanmar,” said OCBC’s global commercial banking head Linus Goh. “And so what we hope to do is to be able to help these customers come into this country and successfully engage with Myanmar businesses to build successful businesses from here.”
OCBC’s very first Myanmar branch was founded in 1923 in Rangoon, by then, by the Oversea-Chinese Bank, one of the three banks that merged to form OCBC Bank in 1932. OCBC then established another branch in Lashio in 1939 as the Burma Road leading to the southwest of China opened up and the country’s trade with its neigh- bor bloomed. OCBC had been active with international trade, finance and foreign ex- change activities until 1963. By 1st October 2014, OCBC was awarded the Provisional Banking License by the government.
OCBC Bank is the longest established Singapore bank, formed in 1932 from the merger of three local banks, the oldest of which was founded in 1912. OCBC Bank is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange as one of the largest listed companies in Singapore by market capitalization. It is also the second largest financial services group in Southeast Asia by assets and has more than 29,000 employees globally.
OCBC Bank and its subsidiaries offer a broad array of commercial banking, specialist financial and wealth management services, ranging from consumer, corporate, investment, private and transaction banking to treasury, insurance, asset management and stockbroking services. Its key markets are Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China. It has over 630 branches and representative offices in Indonesia operated by subsidiary Bank OCBC NISP, and 95 branches and offices in Hong Kong, China and Macau under OCBC Wing Hang.
In 2011, Myanmar granted nine foreign banks licenses to operate in the country on a provisional basis. OCBC intends to offer a full range of banking services, which include cash management and project financing. It will also provide treasury and capital markets advisory and services to both foreign companies and domestic banks in Myanmar.
