Shareholders of TinNghiaBank, Saigon Commercial Bank, and De Nhat, or Ficombank on Dec. 15 approved a merger between the three lenders.

They also voted at their respective shareholder meetings in HCM City to call the new entity Saigon Commercial Bank, which will take over the operations of all three banks.

One temporary board will be set up to complete the necessary procedures for the new bank to begin operations.

After the State Bank of Vietnam approves the merger in principle, the new entity will hold a general shareholders meeting, possibly on December 23.

The bank will have a chartered capital of almost 10.584 trillion VND (504 million USD), the aggregate of the three banks’ capitals.

Shareholders of the three banks will get one share in the new bank for every share they hold.

The bank, which will have a network of 230 branches and transaction offices, plans to look for strategic foreign partners to increase its charter capital to 16 trillion VND (760 million USD) by 2014./.