VIB cards – from trendsetter to a card that grows with customers

VIB cards – from trendsetter to a card that grows with customers

With more than one million credit cards, ranking among Top 3 market-wide card spending, and total transaction value exceeding $5 billion, VIB continues to reinforce its leading position in Vietnam’s card market.

Photo courtesy of VIB

Behind the figures lies a journey of rapid growth driven by continuous innovation–ranging from maximising value across every spending need and digitising the customer experience to empowering choice and developing a card that adapts alongside the customer.

A leading position in the market, from scale to usage

In 2018, VIB boasted roughly 92,000 credit cards. By the end of 2025, the figure surpassed more than 1.1 million credit cards, representing more than a tenfold increase in seven years. In the first half of 2026, VIB reached the 1.5 million-threshold of credit cards in circulation. The bank also recorded a higher growth of credit card spending. From approximately $360 million in 2018, VIB’s total credit card spending climbed to $1 billion in 2020, $3 billion in 2022, and more than $5 billion in 2025–equivalent to a 17-fold increase over seven years. As a result, VIB ranks among the top three banks for credit card spending.

Photo courtesy of VIB

Credit card spending far outpaces the number of credit cards. This indicates that the growth is not only driven by a larger customer base, but also the increasing usage by each cardholder. Data showed that, by the end of 2025, average monthly spending per cardholder reached VND12.4 million ($470) per month, nearly twice the market average.

These figures represent growth across three areas including large scale, high total transaction value, and frequent usage per cardholder. VIB ranks among Top 5 in the number of international credit cards in circulation and Top 3 card spending in the whole market.

In 2025, VIB posted a 100 per cent growth in card spending volume and earned the title Payment Volume Growth from Visa. In the first six months of 2026, more than 1.5 million VIB cards continued to generate over $2.6 billion in spending.

From a tenfold increase in volume to a seventeenfold rise in spending, VIB continues to secure a strong footprint in the card market with both scale and usage growth. Behind the growth figures lies an important transformation. The VIB cards have been continuously evolved in terms of approach, product design, and customer experience optimisation.

From early milestones to shaping card market trends

In the 2018–2019 period, when card products were largely differentiated by card tiers, VIB pioneered a new phase of specialised card offerings tailored to customer needs and spending behaviours– from online shopping and travel to automobiles, cashback, and rewards points.

Instead of applying a common set of benefits based on card tier, VIB designed each card around a specific group of needs, bringing greater value to customers’ most frequent spending categories and delivering enhanced benefits from every transaction. This approach helped drive an important shift in the market: from focusing primarily on card issuance and promotions to creating value throughout the entire card lifecycle.

Customers have more motivation to incorporate cards into their everyday spending. Competition in the market shifts towards the ability to continuously create value after card issuance.

At the same time, technology became a consistent pillar of innovation at VIB, helping the bank strengthen its leadership in card experience and personalisation.

From tailored benefits and a digitalised customer journey to customisable features, personalised card designs, and greater control over funding sources, continuous innovation has expanded both the customer experience and the ways credit cards can be used. As a result, VIB has left the first marks on the journey to shape new trends in the market. As cardholders can proactively select more values for their cards, a new question emerges: Can the benefits and the card itself continue to evolve as customers’ needs and financial journeys change?

Max Card: a new approach to card tiers

Credit card tiers have traditionally been determined by criteria set by banks. Credit limits, financial profiles, and other eligibility requirements determine which tier a customer belongs to and which set of benefits they can access.

Meanwhile, people’s financial journeys are becoming increasingly diverse, especially among younger generations. This is particularly true as working styles, income generation, and spending priorities become more flexible. Someone may be just starting their career, yet already have very distinct needs and preferences regarding their lifestyle experience.

With Max Card, VIB unveiled a new approach in which customers can upgrade their privileges according to their needs, rather than being dependent on criteria and regulations determined by the bank.

Through membership packages, customers can actively upgrade their benefits to suit their needs at different points in time, without having to change cards or open additional products.

The innovation therefore goes beyond a new product or privilege package. It represents a new approach to card tiers: moving from a model in which the bank determines which tier a customer belongs to, to one in which customers can actively choose the tier that best suits them.

Greater freedom of choice, however, also raises a new question: when a person has multiple needs at the same time–and those needs continue to evolve–does expanding value necessarily mean owning and managing more cards?

VIB One Card: when cards grow with customers

One card for cashback, another for travel, another for international spending, and multiple cards for different privilege packages or stages of a customer’s financial journey. The more customers seek to maximise value from their spending, the more likely they are to own multiple cards–meaning more products to choose from and manage.

Photo courtesy of VIB

VIB One Card takes personalisation beyond a choice made at a single point in time. A card can accompany customers in light of their evolving demands, financial capacity and privileges. Personalisation expands without requiring more products or choices. VIB One Card’s adaptability is based on three criteria: Enough for needs, Enough privileges, and Enough for your financial lifecycle. The goal is to create a single card that meets customers’ needs today and adapts as they evolve.

An increasingly seamless customer experience requires increasingly sophisticated capabilities behind the scenes. VIB leverages data, AI, and technology platforms through years of investment to expand personalisation at scale and continuously create additional value through the same product.

From specialised cards tailored to specific needs to customisable features, personalised card design, funding sources, and privilege tiers, VIB’s card development journey reflects a consistent transformation: more customers are having more and more choices.

With One Card, this journey takes another step forward – from a card that customers can choose to a card that can continue to evolve with them.

It reflects VIB’s strategy for the next stage of the credit card market: deeper personalisation, greater value, and an increasingly seamless customer experience.

With great strides in the card market, VIB has demonstrated the journey of innovation and strong growth over the past 30 years. With a customer-centric approach, VIB continuously innovates through personalisation, digitalisation. The bank also empowers cardholders with more choices while developing a card that adapts to their needs.

Each generation of products represents another step forward in customer experience. Through this journey, VIB has reinforced its position among Vietnam’s leading joint-stock commercial banks, contributing to the development of digital payments in Vietnam and delivering practical contributions to the country.

In 2025, the bank continued to rank among businesses making significant contributions to the national budget, with VND2.7 trillion ($102 million) in actual payments to the state budget.

Building on the foundation, VIB is moving into a new chapter with greater technological capabilities, scale, and creative capacity, aiming to make great strides for its customers, shareholders, and the economy.

VIR