Best bank: Techcombank
Techcombank further solidified its leadership in Vietnam’s banking sector in 2023. This has been driven by its five-year transformation journey focusing on investments in digital, data and talent under chief executive Jens Lottner, who took the helm in 2020.
The bank’s strong performance is evident in the numbers. Techcombank acquired 2.6 million new customers in 2023, a 100% increase over 2022, bringing its total customer base to 13.4 million. Total assets grew by 21.5%, with industry-leading deposit and credit growth at 26.9% and 19.2%, respectively.
Techcombank has established itself as a frontrunner in various sectors, including wealth management, card payment volume and the current account savings account (CASA) ratio, which stands at 39.9%, with CASA balances rising 37% year on year.
In 2023, Techcombank generated more fee income than any other bank in Vietnam, recording a 9.5% year-on-year increase. Notably, it was the only Vietnamese bank to report a decrease in problem loans in 2023. Despite a volatile global economy and ongoing uncertainty in Vietnam’s real estate and bond markets – two of the bank’s traditional strengths – Techcombank hit all its full-year financial guidance targets.
The bank’s key differentiator is its digital capability. Of the 2.6 million new customers acquired in 2023, 46.8% came through the bank’s digital banking platforms and 36.2% via partners’ ecosystems, putting the acquisition cost per customer on par with regional leaders.
The bank boasts a highly digitally engaged customer base, with 94% of transactions conducted online and approximately 50 logins to the mobile app per user per month. Techcombank’s apps have received the market’s highest customer ratings.
Best investment bank: SSI Securities
Despite a challenging year for banks still grappling with the fallout from the real estate sector, SSI Securities (SSI) established itself as Vietnam’s best investment bank.
SSI was a dominant force in the debt capital markets last year. It successfully executed Vingroup’s corporate bond issuance, raising $59.5 million from nine institutional and 523 individual investors. This bond was the first in the real estate sector to include individual investors.
SSI also advised on and placed Transimex Corporation’s $12.5 million non-convertible bond issuance. It was one of the first successful private placements following stricter 2022 regulations.
In a highlight 2023 equity capital markets deal, SSI acted as sole adviser to Vietnam National Petroleum Group’s $109 million divestment of its stake in Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank. The divestment bolstered Petrolimex’s finances and aligned with its strategic goal of exiting non-core businesses.
Best international bank: HSBC
HSBC’s international banking business in Vietnam had a busy 2023.
The bank worked on $470 million of sustainable finance transactions across 19 deals. It has set a goal of $12 billion of direct and indirect sustainable financing in Vietnam by 2030.
The bank launched its instant reward redemption programme for its travel themed credit card, Travelone. It also introduced Swift payment tracking and near real-time validation for cross-border inward payments.
Best digital bank: BIDV
BIDV rolled out a range of new digital products and initiatives for retail and business customers in 2023.
The bank launched the BIDV SCF supply chain management software and introduced a chatbot using artificial intelligence to improve customer service. It also launched its Như ý flexible deposit product. The bank introduced open banking through an application programming interface platform.
Net revenue from digital banking services grew to D532 billion ($20.9 million), up 247% year on year. Transaction volumes have grown forty-fold through the Connect Service, reaching 220,000 transactions in 2023. By the end of the year, the number of business customers registered to use digital banking services, including BIDV iBank and BIDV iConnect, increased by 30% year on year to reach 142,421.
Best bank for SMEs: SHB
During 2023, SHB’s small and medium-sized enterprise loans business grew by 54% to D108 trillion ($4.25 billion), the highest SME loan growth among banks in Vietnam.
The bank launched several new SME initiatives including smart revenue and expenditure management and internal cash flow management.
SMEs can pay electricity and water bills automatically by synchronizing data with electricity and water suppliers. The smart salary payment feature automatically identifies employee accounts and the bank’s new internal cash flow management tool allows SMEs to automatically set up budgets and allocate cash flows according to preset limits.
SHB also offers S-link collection, whereby businesses can automatically track and manage revenue streams from points of sale, agents and shoppers in real time.
Best bank for ESG: MSB
MSB was active in Vietnam’s sustainable financing sector in 2023, with loans to green enterprises, healthcare, education and female business owners. The bank also ran several environmental and social initiatives to drive awareness.
Total outstanding green loans were $240 million at the end of 2023, while loans provided to women business owners totalled $294 million.
The bank worked on a $30 million green finance deal with Proparco, a development organization partly owned by the French Development Agency, to finance green projects in Vietnam.
The bank also introduced the Greenday programme. This resulted in the recycling of 700 kilograms of used calendar paper and tree planting, following the Green Vietnam Journey programme of the Vietnamese government.
The bank finalized and activated its environmental and social risk management system for credit activities during the year.
Best bank for corporate responsibility: HDBank
HDBank committed substantial funds to community projects around Vietnam in 2023. These included rural infrastructure projects, healthcare initiatives and scholarships for underprivileged children.
The bank funded various charity programmes, providing free surgeries to thousands of cataract patients and offering health insurance cards. It has offered scholarships and built houses for disadvantaged families across the country. This has involved spending D42.3 billion ($1.7 million) on construction to build charity houses, rural bridges and restore historical relics and sites.
It is the main partner for the One Commune One Product national programme that provides support to farmers seeking to take their products online and promotes the application of non-cash payments.
In an effort to promote sports and an active lifestyle across Vietnam, the bank has sponsored the Vietnam futsal tournament for a seventh consecutive year in 2023.
Best bank for diversity and inclusion: Citi
Citi ran diversity and inclusivity campaigns on multiple fronts throughout 2023. These ranged from empowering LGBTQ+ communities to introducing a more generous maternity package for its employees.
As part of Global Pride month, the bank launched training for all Citi employees on how to be effective and supportive allies to LGBTQ+ co-workers. A series highlighting senior leadership’s supportive views on the need for diversity and equality in the workplace was shared daily to all employees during the month. In addition, Citi also launched Run for Pride clubs in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and encouraged all employees to participate in self-identification.
Citi also increased its maternity allowance to one month of Citi average gross salary of the last six months prior to the birth delivery month. This allowance already includes two months of basic wages from social insurance.
Best bank for corporates: Techcombank
Techcombank rolled out a number of new initiatives as part of its corporate banking proposition in 2023. These included FX solutions, payment services, treasury management solutions and merchant payment services.
It launched Auto Earning, which offers a higher interest rate for deposits. Corporate customers can automatically transfer funds over a certain threshold from their current account balances into a high interest and flexible deposit account.
The bank launched a new QR code payment service for merchants, QR247. Around 400,000 merchants were using the payment service last year, with 40% of them new customers. Techcombank’s new FX solution helped it to generate D1 trillion ($39.3 million) from FX sales, the highest in the bank’s history.
The bank also launched C-Cash in collaboration with Kyriba, an integrated corporate treasury management solution. It offers an improved treasury toolkit with full visibility across accounts.
Rising star: Cake by VP Bank
Cake by VP Bank, which is in its third year of operations, became profitable in 2023. It significantly grew its customer numbers through the launch of several new products.
These included a flexible savings account, which attracted over D6,600 billion ($257 million) of deposits between July and December. It also launched a Quick overdraft product. Its payday lending product launched in 2022 in collaboration with Viettel Money saw more than 220,000 registrations in 2023.
Cake is among the 5% of digital banks worldwide that are profitable and has grown its user base from nearly three million in 2022 to 4.2 million in 2023.
