When Vietnam’s state-owned Vietcombank put out a call last year for potential strategic investors, big financial groups such as Goldman Sachs and GE Money of the US and Japan’s Mizuho and Nomura all queued up for the chance to buy into one of the largest commercial banks in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

With less than 10 per cent of its 85m people using modern financial services and both its economy and retail banking sector expanding rapidly, Communist-ruled Vietnam is seen as a promising market for international banks, whose activities had long been restricted.