Vietnam seeks support from Northern Europe’s top bank in banking restructuring

The request was made during a January 17 meeting between the Vietnamese PM and Marcus Wallenberg, chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB Group) – Sweden’s leading financial services corporation and owner of SEB Bank.

Vietnam welcomes assistance from any organizations with the experience and finance, PM Chinh said while asking SEB to join the country’s financial market and its efforts to research and develop policies to reform and invest in underperforming banks.

Wallenberg expressed his willingness to invest in Vietnam and said SEB would be hosting a conference in Hanoi involving Northern European and Vietnamese firms to explore the opportunity for a collaboration between the two countries, especially in industry development, digital transformation and sustainable development.

PM Chinh supported this idea, commenting that Vietnam’s close ties with Sweden provided a great foundation for cooperation between businesses from both countries.

SEB should enlist the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment’s help in connecting with local businesses and also focus on green transformation and circular economy projects, he suggested.

The meeting with Wallenberg was part of PM Chinh’s trip to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum’s 54th annual meeting.

Vietnam and the WEF established relations in 1989 and since then, the forum has frequently invited Vietnam to its Asia-related conferences and annual meetings in Davos.

The PM had previously asked for Japanese bank Mizuho to assist in reforming the five underperforming banks under special supervision – namely CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank, DongABank, and SCB.