Vietnam could raise the ceiling of foreign ownership in its banks to 35 percent from 30 percent and expand the foreign ownership in unlisted companies to 49 percent as it seeks to beef up falling foreign investment.

The steps were among policies the State Securities Commission, the stock market watchdog, expected to adopt this year "to intercept future opportunities", the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper reported on Saturday.

Techcombank is one of the Vietnamese banks where foreign banks have bought stakes (Photo: SGGP)

The SSC would seek government approval to amend a directive so that foreign investors can own 49 percent of a domestic company regardless if it is listed on the stock market or not, a rate now applied only for listed companies.

Foreign investors now can own a maximum 30 percent of a domestic company or bank.

The SSC also proposed that a domestic bank selling a stake of less than 5 percent in itself to a foreign bank would no longer need central bank approval, the Vietnam Economic Times said, citing SSC's action plan for 2009.

Vietnam has 40 partly private banks and foreign banks have so far bought stakes in 10 of them, including listed Sacombank (STB.HM) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB.HN).