StanChart to open fully owned Vietnam bank in June

HANOI, April 21 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) said on Tuesday it would start operating a wholly owned bank in Vietnam in June, the second lender in the country to be fully owned by a foreign bank after that of HSBC (HSBA.L) (0005.HK).

The Hanoi-based entity, Standard Chartered Bank (Vietnam) Ltd, would be capitalised at 1 trillion dong ($56 million) and full banking operations would start on June 1, the bank said in a statement.

Standard Chartered, which opened its first branch in what was then Saigon in 1904, has said it would open up to 30 new branches in Vietnam by 2012.

Standard Chartered and HSBC Holdings Plc were the first foreign banks to get licences to set up fully owned operations in Vietnam, followed by ANZ (ANZ.AX), South Korea's Shinhan Bank and Malaysia's Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLBB.KL).

HSBC started operating its fully owned bank in the country in January. ($1=17,785 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Alan Raybould)