ACLEDA Bank Lao prepares for AEC
ACLEDA Bank Lao prepares for AEC
A CLEDA Bank Lao Ltd plans to use a new banking regulatory system and upgrade staff skills this year in preparation for the onset of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Narin Phon said that the bank now is conducting a study on an international system, Basel II.
Basel II is intended to create an international standard for banking regulators to control how much capital banks need to put aside to guard against the types of financial and operational risks banks (and the whole economy) face.
Advocates of Basel II believed that such an international standard could help protect the international financial system from the types of problems that might arise should a major bank or a series of banks collapse.
In theory, Basel II attempts to accomplish this by setting up risk and capital management requirements designed to ensure that a bank has adequate capital for the risk the bank exposes itself to through its lending and investment practices.
Mr Narin said the bank is also preparing the financial report base on the International Financial Report Standard (IFRS).
The bank had 913 employees in April and expects to have at least 1,100 by the end of this year. It is now busy upgrading its staff in Laos and overseas.
The arrival of the AEC will transform Asean into a region with a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital.
In the AEC Blueprint, Asean member states agreed to reduce tariffs, improve frameworks for trade, better enforce compliance with standards and progressively open national service sectors up to cross-border supply and foreign investment.
ACLEDA Bank Lao is a bank that has experienced fast growth after starting business operations in 2008. Its assets are now worth more than one trillion kip and it has 45 ATMs and 41 service and branch offices.
“We also expect to have an additional 15 ATMs next year,” Mr Narin said.
“We increased our registered capital up to 300 billion kip last month, from the previous 220 billion kip.”
He said the bank now has deposit accounts that are holding over 640 billion kip (US$80 million) and has granted more than 656 billion kip (US$82 million) in loans to thousands of families.
ACLEDA bank opened for business in July 2008 and was the first Cambodia-based commercial bank to operate in Laos.
Its shareholders comprise ACLEDA Bank Plc, the International Finance Corporation (operated by the World Bank Group) and Triodos-Doen and Triodos Fair Share Fund, the Netherlands' development finance company.
It recently received a congratulatory certificate from the government to certify that ACLEDA Bank Lao is enjoying excellent business operations and has made a significant contribution to economic development over the last five years (2008-2013).
vientiane times
