With the permission, HSBC’s stake in Techcombank will rise to 20 percent, making it the first foreign bank to own up to 20 percent of stake at a Vietnamese bank.

Techcombank is now one of Vietnam’s two leading joint stock banks in term of charter capital.

Meanwhile, HSBC has recently been named the best foreign bank in Vietnam by the leading financial publication Finance Asia for the third consecutive year. The prestigious award acknowledged HSBC’s performance in the second half of 2007 and the first half of 2008.

HSBC was the vanguard in introducing chip credit cards to Vietnam in March 2008.

In addition, the bank has the biggest number of automated teller machines (ATMs) among foreign banks in Vietnam with 82 ATMs.

It is the largest foreign bank in Vietnam in terms of capital, network of branches, kinds of products and numbers of staff and clients.