During the economic reform process in Vietnam, the banking system including state-
owned commercial banks (SOCBs) has developed significantly and played an increasingly
important role in the economic growth. However, in the development process of a market
economy, the Vietnamese state-owned commercial banks have faced internal limitations, of which
the ownership-related limitation needs to be studied thoroughly. Following the US - Vietnam
Bilateral Trade Commitment and since its accession to the WTO, the diversification of bank
ownership is an inevitable trend for increased competences and competiveness. This paper
addresses the following questions: How has the bank ownership changed over the past years in
Vietnam? How have those changes impacted on the Vietnamese banking system? The article
proposed a number of recommendations to further develop Vietnamese banking system regarding
changes of bank ownership.
