Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) issued a statement on November 22 announcing its intention to leave Myanmar by the end of the year, citing the country’s growing “operational complexity” over the past few months.The bank said that it would close its doors “subject to local regulatory approval.”It has approximately two dozen local employees in the country.
The international managing director of ANZ, Simon Ireland, stated, “The decision follows careful consideration of the local operating conditions.”
The move came after dissident gathering Equity For Myanmar asked ANZ, Singapore’s UOB and Vietnam’s BIDV to quit managing Myanmar military-claimed Innwa Bank recently, refering to spilled exchange documents of installments between the banks.At the time, the group stated that “a failure of governments to take a coordinated approach to isolated military conglomerates and cutting off the junta’s sources of revenue” was demonstrated by continued international engagement with Innwa Bank.