I would like to place a fixed deposit with Phongsavanh Bank, but their balance sheets are unavailable and therefore I cannot check the bank financial solidity. Does anyone know if these balance sheets are available somewhere ?
I would suggest you try another bank. This bank went broke a few years ago so I would not trust it. BCEL is the government bank so would be more trustworthy as would the ANZ bank. To open any bank account in Laos you have to have a business visa or work permit. The banks will ask you for this.
Acleda Laos let me open an account without work permit , and so did BCEL after I opened a brokerage account with their subsidiary BCEL-KT http://www.bcel-kt.com/ . I wanted to open accounts with other banks also to diversify the risk , but unfortunately silly Lao Development and ST Bank insist on that work permit requirement, while Phongsavanh Bank would do but as long as they keep their balance sheets secret I cannot trust them.
This bank went broke a few years ago so I would not trust it.
I think you are referring to this laomate.activeboard.com/t36206368/lao-central-bank-vows-to-protect-phongsavanh-bank/ it appears they just suffered a temporary bank run, they did not go bankrupt and no one lost his savings.
Anyway, as long as they do not disclose their balance sheets, I agree they cannot be trusted.
Stumpy, as mentioned above, the bank did not go bankrupt. There was a rumour started by someone....a competitor? that the bank was engaged in shady dealings. This caused a run, but was totally unfounded. The bank is perfectly sound.
Hi Vb I am looking for a bank that will allow me to open an account without having to have a business visa or a work permit. Will check out Phonsavanh.
