Asia Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (ACB) was established under the Business License No. 0032/NH-GP dated 24 April 1993 by the State Bank of Vietnam and Establishment Permit No. 533/GP-UB dated 13 May 1993 by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. ACB started operations on 04 June 1993.

Year 1996: ACB was the first Vietnamese commercial joint-stock bank to issue ACB-MasterCard – an international credit card.

Year 1997: Issuance of ACB-Visa international credit card. ACB began to approach modern banking practices through a two-year training program on banking operations conducted by foreign bankers and banking specialists. From this comprehensive program, ACB gained, in a systematic understanding, operational principles of a modern bank, standards and best practices in risk management, especially in retail banking, and research to translate its knowledge into actions in Vietnam’s situation.

Year 1999: ACB launched its IT modernization program, the purpose of which is to set up a wide area network. At 2001-end, the core-banking platform named TCBS (The Complete Banking Solution) was officially put into operation, which enables real time transactions, connects all branches together and allows them to share a centralized database.

Year 2000: ACB’s restructure was a development strategy within first half of the 2000s (2000 - 2004), differentiating business activities with support activities in order to endure thorough and smooth direction, customer-oriented product management appropriate to customer segments and proper care for business development and risk management. Business divisions consist of consumer banking, commercial banking and treasury. Support divisions include IT, managerial monitoring, business development, HR management, and several departments directly reporting to the President. Head Office’s business activities were transferred to the Main Branch in HCMC.

Year 2003: ACB established a quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001:2000 and its ISO quality management system was acknowledged in terms of (i) deposits, (ii) short and medium-long term loans, (iii) trade services, and (iv) providing HR at the Head Office.

Year 2005: Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) signed an agreement with ACB on a comprehensive technical assistance, and became ACB’s strategic shareholder. ACB carried out the second phase of IT modernization program, including (i) server upgrading, (ii) replacement of current bankcard transaction processing software by a new one compatible with the core banking platform and (iii) ATM installation.

Year 2006: ACB stocks were listed on Hanoi Securities Trading Center.

Year 2007: ACB strongly expanded the branch network, with 31 new branches and sub-branches and set up ACB Leasing Company. Besides that, ACB strengthened it cooperation with various partners such as Open Solution (OSI) – Thien Nam for upgrading the core banking solution, Microsoft Group on applying IT to operations and management, and Standard Chartered Bank on issuing bonds. Finally, ACB succeeded in the issuance of 10 million shares worth VND 100 billion par value with proceeds of over VND 1,800 billion.

Year 2008: As of 8 October, ACB chartered capital was increased to VND 4,651,615 billion. Moreover, the total nationwide branches and sub-branches have reached a number of 178.

Year 2009: In 2009 ACB completed the basic restructuring of human resources and its distribution channel and established a sale-oriented branch model as 51 additional branches and sub-branches were set up. The credit scoring system for individuals and credit rating system for businesses were also revised and officially put into operation, as well as a help desk system. Additionally, ACB was the first bank in Vietnam to receive six awards for “Best Bank in Vietnam” in 2009 from six prestigious international financial magazines.

Year 2010: In 2010, ACB made forecasts more often on business conditions for appropriate decision-making. Also, flexible solutions were made for strict compliance with state regulating policy as well as ensuring safe and effective operations. Prominently, the Board of Directors in Quarter III had a profound discussion on new operating strategies. ACB’s Strategic Directions for the period from 2011 to 2015 and Vision to 2020 was promulgated in January. Moreover, ACB implemented a customer relationship management system, built a standard Data Backup Center in Dong Nai Province, and developed non-traditional distribution channels by transforming the Electronic Banking Department and Telesales Sub-department into sales units.

Year 2011: In January 2011, the Strategic Directions for the Period 2011-2015 and Vision to 2020 was issued.  One focus is the transformation of the bank’s corporate governance practice in the direction of compliance with Vietnamese rules and regulations and application of international best practices. This program has the following major contents: (1) Clear definition and separation of the roles and responsibilities and decision making authorities of the board, board committees and the management; (2) Strengthening the directing role of the Board of Directors; (3) Enhancement of the role and strengthening the power of the Supervisory Board, improvement of the capacity of the Internal Auditing Department, and development of an appropriate risk management framework. At year-end, ACB established an enterprise module data center in HCMC with a total investment value of nearly 2 million USD. This is one of the first data centers of their kind built in accordance with international standards in Vietnam. In addition, ACB Gold Manufacturing Center was the first business in the sector both certified by QMS Australia for its quality management system meeting the standards of ISO 9001:2008 and recognized by Accreditation of Vietnam for meeting standards of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 in testing and calibrating capacity (determining gold content). This was the first step for ACB Gold Manufacturing Center to build a gold refining plant and gold age assessing lab attaining international standards in the future. In the year, ACB inaugurated 45 additional branches and sub-branches.

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