Commercial banks in communist Laos may start talking to each other soon, thanks to the advent of the Asean Economic Community (AEC). “If you open up a national payments system, banks can talk to each other,” says Tammy Medard, chief executive of ANZ Bank (Lao).
As part of its commitment to the AEC, which officially came into being on January 1, 2016, Laos has started to set up a national payments system that will facilitate not just domestic intra-banking activities but also cross-border banking and foreign investment in the emerging market.