Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, better known as VietinBank, will merge with the unlisted Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank. The bank’s shareholders have already approved the merger. This will be the latest step in Vietnam’s effort to shore up its banking system. VietinBank, one of the largest lenders in Vietnam, is more than 60% owned by the government. It said the merger will enable it to expand its client base, including with Vietnam National Petroleum Group, which holds a 40% stake in Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank and accounts for more than 50% of Vietnam’s retail market for transport fuels. The Petrolimex bank, also known as PG Bank, had total assets of 25.78 trillion Vietnamese dong ($1.2 billion) at the end of 2014, with 16 branches and 63 transaction outlets throughout the country. It reported a pretax profit of 168 billion dong for the year. VietinBank, whose shareholders include the World Bank’s International Finance Corp and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, is the seventh-largest company listed on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange by market capitalization. It reported a pretax profit of 7.3 trillion dong last year.