According to Brand Finance’s Vietnam 100 2023 report which ranks the nation’s 100 most valuable and strongest brands, banking brands in Vietnam proved resilient to economic headwinds battering the nation by adopting digitalisation and enhancing customer services. Vietnam’s economy had faced a rocky start to 2023 as exports shrank and global interest rates rose.
Recording a combined brand value[1] growth of 47%, banking brands thrived among Vietnam’s most valuable brands listed in our rankings with most of them listed in our 2022 rankings recording double-digit brand value percentage increases. Bank of Investment and Development for Vietnam (BIDV) (brand value up 69% to US$1.4 billion) was the fastest growing brand while Agribank (brand value up 2% to US$1.4 billion) was the slowest. Nine new banking brands also made their first entry into our rankings this year — TPBank, LPBank, Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Eximbank, Kien Long Commercial Bank, Vietcap Securities Joint Stock Company and NCB.
Viettel defended its title as Vietnam’s most valuable brand in our rankings for the eighth year running. Additionally, the brand charted a growth in its brand value by 2% to US$8.9 billion and maintained a brand strength rating of AAA. This impressive brand performance contributed to the brand’s improvement in financial performance where it reported a year-on-year revenue growth by 23.4% to VND23,700 billion in 2022.
Viettel has been focusing on digitalisation initiatives that are in line with state policy directives of building a digitalised Vietnam. In 2022, Viettel and Nvidia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic partnership on using artificial intelligence (AI) to advance Viettel and Vietnam’s technology research and solutions. The agreement seeks to allow Viettel to benefit from Nvidia's expertise with the aim of capturing opportunities in machine learning (ML) and AI research, ML/AI industry collaborations as well as other strategic engagements. Subsequently, Viettel seeks to utilise these new insights to upskill Vietnam’s workforce and provide it with the necessary human infrastructure needed for its AI-driven national directive.
Vietcombank is the strongest[2] brand in our rankings with a brand strength rating improvement to AAA+ from AAA. It soared in brand value by 43% to US$1.9 billion, rising three places to 4th position in our rankings. The brand’s efforts in driving digitalisation and enhancing customer experience were key drivers of its brand strength which, in turn, contributed significantly to its brand value increase.
Vietcombank launched several digital initiatives at the end of 2022, such as the payment pre-validation service and the SWIFT low value cross-border payment (SWIFT GO). These initiatives were complemented with promotional campaigns encouraging customers to utilise its digital banking services. For instance, it introduced the “Open online account – Super promotions” programme, encouraging customer use of its eKYC solutions when opening online banking accounts. Through digitalisation and promotional activities, Vietcombank recorded an impressive 88% digital active customer base, the highest among its competitors.
Bank of Investment and Development for Vietnam (BIDV) saw its brand value skyrocket 69% to US$1.4 billion as the fastest growing brand in our rankings. It also rose six spots to 7th place and saw an increase in brand strength rating from AA+ to AAA-. The brand’s rise in brand value is largely attributed to its improvement in brand strength as it continues to steer Vietnam’s digital transformation efforts.
BIDV introduced digital products to support operations of Vietnamese businesses. In 2022, the brand launched BIDV iConnect, allowing businesses to connect and perform banking transactions directly on their management software. In collaboration with Asian Development Bank (ADB), it pioneered Vietnam’s first digital platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) — BIDV SMEasy. This platform allows SMEs to access financial and non-financial services on a single platform, bolstering the business operations of SMEs in Vietnam. These digitalisation initiatives contributed to BIDV being feted with the “Best SME Bank in Vietnam” award by industry publications Asian Banking and Finance and Alpha Southeast Asia for the fifth consecutive year.
Alex Haigh, Managing Director – Asia Pacific of Brand Finance, commented:
“Despite challenging economic headwinds, banking brands in Vietnam have shown outstanding growth in Brand Finance’s Top 100 Vietnam brands rankings this year. We see their commitment to digitalisation and enhancing customer service producing results. We also congratulate Viettel, Vietcombank and BIDV for topping the ranks as most valuable, strongest and fastest growing brand respectively.”
[1] Brand value is understood as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market. The full ranking, additional insights, charts, more information about the methodology and definitions of key terms are available in the Brand Finance Vietnam 100 2023 report.
[2] Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance. Compliant with ISO 20671, Brand Finance’s assessment of stakeholder equity incorporates original market research data from over 150,000 respondents in 38 countries and across 31 sectors.