Time needed for Asean to integrate fully as economic bloc: bankers

Singapore

THE full integration of Asean as an economic bloc would take time, even as the region is expected to drive growth over the long term, said top executives of two Singapore banks on Thursday.

OCBC's chief executive Samuel Tsien said that it is too premature to talk about a "one Asean", noting that banking integration has moved slower than that of trade integration.

The comments come on the back of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which is …