The South Korean company and the Finance Company Limited for Community (FCCOM) signed a deal on Tuesday reportedly worth KRW49 billion ($42 million), according to The Korea Times newspaper.

FCCOM is a subsidiary of the Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB), a mid-sized private lender focused on personal loans.

The joint venture will be Hyundai Card’s first overseas operation, according to a statement it put out.

The deal is expected to be approved by South Korean and Vietnamese authorities by the first quarter of 2020, and the JV would begin operations in the second half of the year, Hyundai Card said.

Hyundai Card will focus on sharing its know-how of financial products, marketing, risk management and digital finance, while MSB, which is familiar with the local market, will be in charge of sales and operations.

The JV also plans to expand from the current core business of personal loans into credit cards, auto loans and corporate financing, maximizing synergies with Hyundai’s business in Vietnam and that of its affiliate, Kia Motors, who together accounted for 32 percent of the local auto market in 2018.

"Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, and is a key country in our government’s new southern policy. The country is also attractive thanks to its young, abundant labor force and large domestic market of nearly 100 million people," the company told DealStreetAsia.

Vietnam’s personal loan market has been growing at 60 percent a year on average, while the number of credit card users reached 7.4 million last year, Hyundai Card said.

In the last few years South Korean finance companies have been entering the Vietnamese market. In 2018 Shinhan Card Co, a credit card unit of Shinhan Financial Group, acquired the entire stake of Prudential Vietnam Finance for around $150 million.

The same year Lotte Card acquired Techcom Finance, the consumer finance arm of Techcombank, one of Vietnam’s largest private banks by assets for an undisclosed sum.