7 foreign banks, including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) “finalizing procedures to close their branches in two biggest cities of Vietnam to switch to new operational model,” according to Tuoi Tre.

The moves, announced in a recent report of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly which cited data from the State Bank of Vietnam, include a number of other bank branches such as LaoVietBank (Hanoi and HCMC), Agricole SA (HCMC), Standard Chartered Bank (HCMC) and Shinhan Bank (HCMC).

"There are many reasons for the closures including the fact that some banks have changed their operational model to operate as 100-percent foreign-owned banks in Vietnam, said the report.

It is a normal step foreign banks often take after they are allowed by SBV to set up banks with 100-percent foreign capital in the Southeast Asian countries," wrote the paper.

HSBC opened its first Vietnamese location in 1870 (under its former name, Hongkong Bank) and has had a full-service branch in the city since 1995. It also owns 20% of state-owned Techcombank.

ANZ opened a sub-branch in HCMC in 1996 and has since expanded across the country, most recently to Can Tho and Binh Duong.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that these banks were considering "terminating" their operations in HCMC. Tuoi Tre has since changed the language in their article and we have followed suit.

[Tuoi Tre // Photos via NDH and ANZ]