Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh gives away the Labour Medal to HDBanks Board of Directors.

HDBank, as it is formally known, also won two other honours, the Emulation Flag of the Prime Minister and the Traditional Flag of HCM City Peoples Committee.

Attending the awards ceremony were Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh; Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan; Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh; leaders of central and local agencies; HDBanks customers and strategic partners; and the banks past and present employees.

Over the years HDBank has won a number of honours, including the Labour Medal, second class (twice) and third class (thrice), and the Governments Emulation Flag several times.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh confers the Governments Emulation Flag on HDBank.

Speaking at the ceremony, Nhan hailed the lenders positive contributions to the citys socio-economic development in recent years.

HDBank had shown its corporate social responsibility by donating health insurance cards to 24,000 near-poor households, funding cataract surgeries for 12,000 poor people and gifting more than 100 Houses of Love to those in need, he said.

It had also awarded 2,000 scholarships to poor children in mountainous provinces and built bridges for poor people in Mekong Delta provinces, he said.

Nhan said HDBank should aim to ultimately become a “happy development bank” to improve the happiness of all of its employees, customers and society as a whole.

Nguyen Thien Nhan, secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, speaks at the ceremony held to award the Presidents Labour Medal to HDBank.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, permanent vice chairwoman of HDBank, said with its orientation towards strong and sustainable growth and effective risk management, HDBank has maintained the best asset quality in the banking sector after 30 years of development.

The year also marks the 30th anniversary of the banks founding.

HDBank is one of 10 Vietnamese banks named among the 500 biggest banks in the Southeast Asian region by AsiaBanker, the first bank in Viet Nam to receive the “Green Deal Award” from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), among Forbes 40 most prestigious brands in Viet Nam, and the winner of the Best Companies to Work For in Asia award from HR Asia for two consecutive years.

Established in 1990 as the HCM City Housing Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank, the bank had a starting capital of VND3 billion, assets of VND20 billion and 17 employees.

The bank changed its name to HDBank in 2011. — VNS