South Korea’s Shinhan Bank Vietnam is set to acquire Australia-based ANZ’s retail business in Vietnam, further cementing its rank as the largest foreign bank operator in the South East Asian country.

Shinhan Bank Vietnam announced on Friday that it signed a deal to take over ANZ’s retail business that included $547 million in deposits and $161 million in lending assets as of September 2016. The business serves 95,000 credit card customers, and has eight branches and 289 employees. The Australian lender said it decided to sell the retail banking business to focus on institutional banking business in Asia. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.

The acquisition will increase the total asset of Shinhan Bank’s Vietnamese operation to $3 billion, the number of credit card customers to 160,000 and employees to more than 1,300, making it the biggest foreign bank in the country by asset and the number of branches beating London-based HSBC.

Shinhan Bank entered the Vietnamese market in 1993 and established Shinhan Bank Vietnam as a local subsidiary in 2009.

By Kim Tae-sung

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