BNP Paribas has relocated Aymar de Liedekerke Beaufort to Vietnam to serve as country head and chief executive officer of the bank's Ho Chi Minh City branch, the French banking group said in a release today.
In his new role Beaufort will oversee corporate and institutional banking, investment solutions and retail banking -- the group’s three core businesses in Vietnam.
The move comes at a time when the county, one of the world's five remainng one-party socialist states, is edging closer to expanding the size and scope of foreign ownership in public companies, including stakes in the country's banks and securities houses. The decision on the new Law on Investment rests with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
BNP Paribas already holds a 20% stake in Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank, a Ho Chi Minh City-headquartered, privately-owned lender.
Culture shock
Prior to his arrival in Southeast Asia Beaufort headed corporate coverage for BNP Paribas in Germany -- a position he held since 2012, according to the release. He was also the bank’s deputy head of corporate and transaction banking for Europe between 2011 and 2012.
Beaufort has previously held country officer positions, although none have been in Asia. During his 26-year career with BNP Paribas he has served as country head in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, while also securing a regional post in South Eastern Europe.
Beaufort succeeds Luc Cardyn, the French bank’s Vietnam country head since 2008. He will report to Pierre Veyres, regional head for Southeast Asia and CEO of the bank’s Singapore branch, according to the release.
Cardyn's Linkedin profile indicates he will become BNP Paribas’ first country head for Indonesia, but a spokesperson for the bank only confirmed that Cardyn will move to another senior role within the bank.
New chapter
Vietnam was a French colonial possession for more than 60 years until 1954. Their shared history, culminating in a violent and prolonged struggle for Vietnamese independence that saw first French then U.S. forces defeated by North Vietnamese, did not prevent the Paris-headquartered bank from being among the first batch of international financial institutions granted permission to establish a presence in the country in 1989.
BNP Paribas operates a bank branch in Ho Chi Minh City and a representative office in the northern capital Hanoi. According to local reports the State Bank of Vietnam, the country's central banker, approved BNP Paribas' application to upgrade its Hanoi rep office into a bank branch earlier this year
