Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya, better known as Krungsri, now owns all of Vietnamese consumer lender SHB Finance after buying the remaining 50% from Vietnam’s SHB. That wraps up a staged deal agreed five years ago and gives Japan’s MUFG group a wholly owned consumer finance arm in Vietnam.
The purchase closed on October 15, 2026, after the State Bank of Vietnam and other authorities signed off, according to a release from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and MUFG Bank. The lender is now called SFinance Consumer Credit Finance Company Limited and trades under a new brand. Neither side disclosed a price.
SFinance offers unsecured loans and credit cards to individuals and has more than one million customers.
Krungsri asked to take the second half early. When the two banks signed in August 2021, they split the transfer into two steps: 50% first, and the rest after three years once conditions and regulatory requirements were met. Krungsri bought its first half in May 2023. SHB’s board later approved Krungsri’s proposal to hand over the rest ahead of schedule.
In July, SHB said the central bank had approved converting the company from a multimember into a single member limited liability company, the legal step that cleared the way for the transfer. SHB expected the deal to be finalised by the middle of the third quarter. It took until mid October.
SHB hasn’t been shy about why it sold. Do Quang Vinh, vice chairman and deputy CEO, said the transfer “will generate a significant capital surplus for SHB’s shareholders” and that the bank would put its resources into core business. SHB says its retail banking partnership with Krungsri carries on.
MUFG describes Krungsri as Thailand’s fifth largest bank by assets, with a network of more than 540 locations of its own, and, together with its subsidiaries, the country’s biggest credit card issuer. MUFG made Krungsri a consolidated subsidiary in December 2013.
MUFG says Krungsri will pair its consumer finance experience with SFinance’s business base to widen what it offers in Vietnam, and that MUFG and MUFG Bank will back SFinance’s growth.
Herald View
Half ownership meant sharing the steering wheel. Now Krungsri runs SFinance on its own underwriting, its own card playbook and MUFG’s balance sheet, while SHB pockets its capital. Watch the card book. Krungsri is already Thailand’s biggest card issuer, and Vietnamese lenders without a deep pocketed foreign parent will feel it first in their funding costs.
