The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) has appointed Thomas William Tobin as head of its retail banking group, marking the first time a foreigner has held senior executive office at the state-owned lender.

The appointment of Tobin was announced in a ceremony at the bank’s headquarters in Hanoi on Friday.

Tobin earned his MBA from McMaster University in Canada, and has more than 30 years of experience working in finance and banking industries, especially the Asia-Pacific retail sector, according to his LinkedIn profile.

A seasoned banker, the Canadian-born executive worked as CEO and country head of HSBC Vietnam between 2007 and 2011, responsible for looking after 17 branches and 1,600 staff.

Since 2012 until his appointment at Vietcombank, Tobin worked for American multinational financial services corporation Visa Inc., where he was responsible for Hong Kong and Macao as well as Northeast Asia group country manager.

Tobin’s fields of expertise include electronic payments, retail asset management and wholesale banking and trade, according to an article announcing his appointment published on Vietcombank’s website.

The bank’s decision to appoint Tobin is regarded as an ambitious move to realize its goal of “becoming the number-one commercial bank in Vietnam by 2020,” the article reads.

This is the first time the state-owned Vietnamese commercial bank, founded in 1963, has named a foreigner to a senior executive office.

As of 2016, the State Bank of Vietnam holds 77.11 percent of Vietcombank shares, with the remaining owned by Japan-based Mizuho Bank Ltd. (15 percent) and other smaller shareholders.

The bank posted total assets of over VND787.9 trillion (US$34.71 billion) and revenue of more than VND48.02 trillion ($2.12 billion) last year, a 17 percent and 15 percent growth on the previous year, respectively, according to its 2016 Annual Report.

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