Southeast Asia Expansion Strategy

台資商業銀行的東南亞發展策略Southeast Asia, precisely, ASEAN, is one of the most rapidly growing regions in the world. Banking sector sees enormous opportunities from ASEAN’s collective potential and expects it to play an increasingly prominent role in the deployment of overseas expansion and pursuing long-term growth. Through a comprehensive country-wise comparison based on selective criteria, this report proposes the strategic direction toward ASEAN market development, that is, selecting the target markets based on the size of economy, positioning the markets based on the major driver of the economy, linking the market positioning to main business areas such as corporate-banking or retail banking accordingly, and hence determining the recommended setup of entry including branch, subsidiary, or merger and acquisition. In this report, Indonesia and the Philippines are positioned as “Franchise markets” which require proactive expansion strategy to develop both cross-border and local businesses with the proposed setup as subsidiaries. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are positioned as “Network markets” which require proactive expansion strategy with the main focus on enhancing connectivity capability with the proposed setup as branches. Myanmar is positioned as “Strategic potential markets” whereas Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam and Lao PDR are viewed insignificant for the time being. Additionally, for the fast-growing markets or markets where organic growth method is not feasible, merger and acquisition could be a solution