First private bank to open in Hakha in March

18 February 2014: The Co-operative Bank Ltd., better known across the country as CB Bank, is set to open its new branch in Hakha, Chin State next month.

It will be the first private bank to provide financial services in the capital town, currently having only the government-owned Myanma Economic Bank, and elsewhere in Chin State.

Pu Chum Ling, of the Rung Construction Company that has been in charge of constructing the bank’s building since November last year, said in the Hakha Post that it would be completed soon and that the official opening ceremony would be held.

Recently, Kyaw Myo Oo, one of the bank’s directors from Nay Pyi Taw, had travelled to Hakha and inspected the construction in preparation for the opening event.

Originally operating under Burma’s Ministry of Co-operatives, the bank was a merger of three cooperative banks, namely the Co-operative Bank, the Co-operative Farmers’ Bank, and the Co-operative Promoters Bank.

Since June 2004, the merger has started its operation as a Public Bank Company Limited although the CB Bank itself was established in August 1992.

The CB Bank, headquartered in Rangoon, has now over 70 branches with ATM (automated teller machine) services and also runs Foreign Exchange Counters across the country.

In Burma, the State-owned Myanma Economic Bank has existed since April 1976 after being changed from the State Commercial Bank founded in 1954, providing commercial banking as well as treasury banking services, according to its official website.#