OCBC

OCBC: OCBC reportedly entered into MOUs with 10 Myanmar banks, comprising three state-owned banks and seven private commercial banks, during the official opening of its Myanmar branch today.

The MOUs are for collaborative training in key areas which include cash management, trade finance and treasury solutions to support the anticipated growth in trade and foreign direct investments into Myanmar.

Collectively, the banks aim to jointly develop new solutions to support their clients in managing the local and foreign currency operating and financing requirements of investments and projects.

In addition, OCBC will also help support the development of Myanmar's banking industry, which includes the domestic money market and interbank lending, as well as to enhance the infrastructure for payments and settlements.

Back in Oct ’14, OCBC and UOB were granted limited banking licenses to operate in Myanmar, which required both to open their first branch within 12 months.

The limited license allows entitled banks to provide banking services for foreign corporations and FX services, as well as a retail banking business if the bank partners with one of Myanmar’s 21 local banks.

Despite having a representative office in the city of Yangon in Myanmar since 1993, DBS is the only Singapore bank which did not receive an approval from the Central Bank of Myanmar.

Nevertheless, the street still prefers DBS (TP $23.10), followed by OCBC (TP $11.57) and UOB (TP $25.28), by virtue of its greater ability to benefit from rising interest rates, resilience from its presence in developed markets and geographical edge over OCBC and UOB.