HSBC to open more offices in Vietnam

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L), Europe's largest bank, plans to open a new branch in Vietnam as well as seven additional offices after it launched a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in the communist-run state.

HSBC and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) were the first foreign banks to win licences to set up fully owned operations in Vietnam, followed by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX), South Korea's Shinhan Bank and Malaysia's Hong Leong Bank (HLBB.KL).

HSBC already has two branches in Vietnam, one in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Hanoi, which it converted to HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd on January 1, HSBC said on Monday.

"Our ability to locally incorporate is a tangible example of the government's willingness to welcome foreign investment to Vietnam," Thomas Tobin, the head of HSBC's business in Vietnam, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova, editing by Will Waterman)