VIB Cards – Affirming market leadership and shaping a new industry trend

Vietnam’s card market is entering a pivotal transition. For years, competition centered largely on issuance volume and the scale of promotional programs. Today, the focus is unmistakably shifting toward experience, personalization, and customer empowerment. Cards are no longer viewed merely as payment instruments; they are becoming integral components of personal financial ecosystems—where users expect autonomy, flexibility, and relevance to their individual lifestyles.

Against this backdrop, VIB’s milestone of surpassing one million cards, supported by a compound annual growth rate of 40%, its No. 1 ranking in Mastercard spending, and a Top 3 position nationwide in total card spending, represents more than operational scale. These achievements reflect the profile of an institution that anticipates change and acts ahead of it - not only adapting to market shifts, but actively redefining the value axis of Vietnam’s card market, where technology, innovation, and customer control sit at the center.

The 1 million card milestone and the strategy of Leading card trends

In 2025, VIB officially entered Vietnam’s “million-card club,” marking a significant milestone in its credit card journey. Rather than viewing this achievement as an endpoint, VIB regards it as the natural outcome of a strategy pursued with discipline over many years: Leading card trends. More importantly, the bank sees this moment as the starting point of a new cycle - focused on further elevating service value to meet the needs of an expanding and increasingly sophisticated customer base.

At the heart of this strategy is a consistent guiding principle: customer centricity embedded across the entire product and service design process. Instead of offering standardized, pre-packaged solutions, VIB equips customers with the tools to actively shape their own financial experiences in line with personal needs, behaviors, and life stages.

Eight years into its transformation journey in the credit card segment, the results are unequivocal. From just 92,000 cards in 2018, VIB reached the one-million-card threshold by August 2025 - representing more than a tenfold increase and a CAGR exceeding 40%, well above the industry average.

More telling than scale, however, is the quality of growth. By the end of 2025, total credit card spending at VIB had increased seventeenfold compared to 2018, reaching nearly USD 5.4 billion. Average monthly spending per cardholder rose to approximately VND 15 million - double the 2018 level and 50% higher than the industry average.

This performance has been validated not only through customer usage patterns, but also by global card networks. In 2025, Mastercard awarded VIB nine major distinctions across key categories, including portfolio scale, spending volume, cross-border payments, and e-commerce. Visa also recognized VIB for outstanding growth in card spending and for its leadership in technology and innovation.

By early December 2025, total spending via VIB Mastercard cards had reached nearly VND 119 trillion, positioning the bank as the market leader in Mastercard spending and among the Top 3 banks nationwide in total card spending.

Customers want empowerment, not just service

Vietnam’s card market has expanded rapidly in recent years. Yet behind record issuance figures and transaction volumes, a more fundamental question is emerging: do customers truly need more cards, or do they need financial solutions flexible enough to evolve with their lives?

According to McKinsey insights and data from card organizations, today’s most active card users are individuals aged 30–50 with middle-to-high incomes and diversified spending needs. Notably, this segment no longer remains loyal to static products. Instead, they prioritize financial institutions that offer flexibility and meaningful control over their financial experience. Research from Accenture Financial Services indicates that more than 60% of card users are willing to switch banks if given greater autonomy in configuring credit limits and payment methods across different life stages. For these customers, long-term value lies not in short-term promotions, but in the ability to activate, deactivate, and recalibrate card features based on context and priorities.

This shift has catalyzed emerging concepts such as “One Credential” or “Flexible Credential” - a single payment identity capable of dynamically enabling debit, credit, installment, or prepaid functions as needed. It signals a structural transformation in the card market: from competition driven by product proliferation to leadership defined by the ability to empower customers and accompany them throughout their financial life cycle.

VIB's story of innovation and user empowerment

For many years, banking products - particularly payment cards - were treated as industrial outputs: standardized designs, uniform features, and one-size-fits-all processes deployed at scale. At VIB, this paradigm has been deliberately replaced by a different philosophy: innovation must originate from customer aspirations, with users positioned at the center of every product development decision.

The transformation begins with the card itself. Through GenAI technology integrated into the MyVIB app, customers can design fully personalized cards using a simple portrait photo - translated into styles ranging from chibi animation to modern art. Each card becomes a distinct visual expression of personal identity. The creation of more than 4,000 unique designs within the first 24 hours of launch underscores a deeper insight: customers increasingly seek not only functionality, but also ownership and self-expression in financial products.

Yet the true differentiation lies in financial control. With multiple card lines tailored to specific spending needs, VIB cardholders can select preferred categories - healthcare, education, dining, travel, or shopping with cashback rates of up to 15%. Users can independently adjust statement dates, credit limits, and minimum payment levels directly within the app. All actions are completed fully online without branch visits, call centers, or approval processes placing personalization entirely in the customer’s hands.

Beyond features and aesthetics, VIB addresses a more fundamental need: enabling customers to actively manage their money. With next-generation payment solutions, users can choose the funding source credit card or payment account for each individual transaction, allowing real-time optimization of cash flow.

Through Super Cash, VIB’s smart consumer lending solution, customers can flexibly reallocate limits between credit cards and cash loans under a single credit line of up to VND 1 billion, meeting spending or repayment needs within minutes. Idle balances in payment accounts no longer remain dormant; they automatically earn returns of up to 4.3% annually. At the same time, VIB’s global payment cards offer cashback of up to 5% on online, overseas, travel, shopping, and dining transactions. Combined, these capabilities deliver cumulative benefits of up to 9.3%, ensuring cash flow efficiency whether funds are in use or at rest.

Collectively, these innovations represent a significant step forward in empowering customers with proactive financial control - from everyday spending to major life decisions.

A new value axis for the 2026 card market is taking shape

Market dynamics and VIB’s on-the-ground execution point to the emergence of a new value axis in personal finance: fewer products, but richer, more adaptive experiences across different life stages. Moving away from rigid, bank-driven offerings, VIB has repositioned itself by placing customers at the core and granting them true ownership over financial decisions.

Within the card segment, this shift is transformational. As payment experiences become increasingly flexible, cards are no longer constrained by fixed benefits or predefined use cases. Instead, they evolve into open platforms - enabling banks to accompany customers across changing priorities and financial milestones.

If 2025 laid the foundation, 2026 may be the year this strategy fully materializes. The defining question is no longer how many card types a bank offers, but whether its card solutions are intelligent and flexible enough to adapt to a customer’s continuously evolving financial journey.

Backed by a strong technology foundation and early leadership in AI-driven innovation, VIB is well positioned to answer that question consistently. As the market enters a new era, sustainable competitive advantage will belong not to the bank with the broadest product catalog, but to the one that understands its customers most deeply - and empowers them with the greatest autonomy.

A new era of VIB card solutions is taking shape - defined by personalized financial ecosystems that enable Vietnamese consumers to truly take control of their finances.