Prudential has scored early successes in its drive to build a financial services operation in Vietnam, where it remains one of the few international players to have secured a licence.

The UK's second largest insurer, which generates more than half of its profits overseas, has used the Asian country to launch only its second foray into consumer finance.

Prudential Vietnam Finance, launched last October, specialises in making household loans of up to about $30,000 in the country as it targets Vietnam’s increasing mass-affluent population.

It offers personal loans of between $2,400 and $2,500 and loans to buy consumer goods of about $450 a time.

The Pru's other personal loans business was Egg, the ill-fated internet banking group, majority owned by the insurer and floated on the London stock market in 2000.

Having resisted pressure for years to offload Egg, which was forced to shut in France and faced problems winning customers in the UK, the Pru sold its loss-making banking operations to Citigroup for £575 million last January.

The most recent move by the Pru, which is likely to launch a Vietnam-branded credit card later this year, is part of its ambition to be the dominant financial services player in Vietnam within the next 20 years.

Although it will compete with local state-run commercial lenders and private finance companies, the Pru, as the first foreign company to be granted a lending licence, has first-mover advantage.

However, it will have to compete with HSBC, Europe's biggest banking group, and SG, the French financial services group that also received a lending licence last year.

Kalidas Ghose, the chief executive of Prudential Vietnam Finance, said customers have been taking out loans to renovate as well as buy their homes. He said borrowers were also using the loans to finance school fees.

"There has been a significant increase in monthly household income. Half of Vietnamese say their biggest aspiration is to buy a home," he said.

Despite recent falls in property prices, buying a home in Vietnam is relatively expensive. Mr Ghose said a family property in the outer suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City would cost upwards of $100,000 (£50,500). The average annual salary in Vietnam is $835.

Prudential Vietnam Finance is receiving between 450 and 500 loan applications a day, and approving a little over a fifth of applications, equivalent to about 2,000 a month, Mr Ghose said.

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