VIB deploys Front Arena treasury and foreign exchange trading system on AWS

VIB deploys Front Arena treasury and foreign exchange trading system on AWS

On September 28, Vietnam International Bank put into operation its core system supporting treasury, foreign exchange, and financial-market trading activities, powered by Front Arena, the financial technology platform developed by FIS Global, on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure.

With this milestone, VIB has become the first bank in Vietnam to operate Front Arena on AWS.

Photo courtesy of VIB

Bringing Front Arena onto cloud infrastructure further extends VIB’s cloud-first strategy to critical systems, while strengthening the capabilities of a business area in which the bank has established a solid market position. The new treasury and foreign exchange trading system enables VIB to expand transaction-processing capacity, increase automation, enhance real-time risk management, and support faster, more efficient expansion of treasury and foreign exchange activities, with stronger controls as the bank continues to scale.

Front Arena is a multi-asset trading and risk management platform developed by FIS, drawing on decades of experience serving financial institutions across global markets. The platform is designed to manage the full trade lifecycle – from trade execution, position, and risk management through post-trade processing – on a unified architecture.

This enables VIB to increase automation, shorten processing times, reduce manual data entry, transformation and reconciliation, and access information more promptly for faster decision-making, while supporting larger transaction volumes with more consistent controls.

Selecting Front Arena – a platform developed and proven at international scale – enables VIB to leverage FIS’s technology capabilities and accumulated market expertise in operating treasury and foreign exchange activities, positioning the bank to accommodate larger scale, more sophisticated products, and higher governance requirements in the next phase of development.

“VIB is entering the VIB 3.0 phase, developing at a larger scale, with higher governance requirements as markets become increasingly volatile and complex. Investing in a treasury and foreign exchange trading system powered by Front Arena is one step in our strategy to build the treasury and foreign exchange business capabilities required for the bank’s next stage of development. Building on the position we have established over many years, the new system will contribute to strengthening VIB’s ability to grow sustainably in the next stages ahead,” said Tran Chi Thanh, head of treasury at VIB.

Over the years, VIB has consistently strengthened its position among the leading banks in the capital markets, demonstrating agility and flexibility in trading government bonds and valuable papers issued by credit institutions. At the same time, the bank has continued to expand its foreign exchange trading volumes, ranking among the Top 2 in FX swap trading across the market. Revenue from structured products and derivatives recorded a compound annual growth rate of 45 per cent over 2020–2025.

Photo courtesy of VIB

In international markets, VIB has built its reputation through a network of partnerships with leading banks and financial institutions, while continuously expanding trade finance, international payments, and offshore funding activities. Having participated in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Trade Finance Programme since 2009 and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) programme since 2011, VIB was recognised by ADB four times for its SME trade finance capabilities, in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and has received eight awards from the IFC for trade finance and excellence in issuing bank capabilities, most recently with the “Best GTFP Issuing Bank, East Asia and Pacific” award in 2026. In international funding, as of August 2026, VIB’s total offshore funding had exceeded $1.6 billion, reflecting the confidence of its partners and the bank’s ability to access international sources of capital.

Building on a market position established and consistently strengthened over many years, VIB is continuing to raise the standard of its treasury and foreign exchange capabilities for the next phase of development, with Front Arena representing one of the key investments aimed at advancing scale, market capabilities, and governance standards to a new level.

If Front Arena is the business platform, AWS is the cloud computing infrastructure that enables its deployment and operation. For the treasury and foreign exchange trading system, this combination further extends VIB’s “Mobile First – Cloud First – AI First” strategy to systems that directly generate business and management capabilities, enabling the bank to align technology resources with actual demand, and prepare for changes in transaction volumes and business scope in the next phase.

This can be seen in the way a foreign exchange transaction is processed: the front-office team is responsible for accurately recording the agreed terms – currency, amount, exchange rate, and settlement date; the control function uses the same data to monitor limits and risk before the transaction is approved; and the operations team then receives the transaction for confirmation and settlement processing. Each function has distinct roles and authorities over the same data set, providing the foundation for VIB to raise governance standards, not merely processing speed.

The value of a cloud model therefore does not come simply from infrastructure migration, but depends on how the organisation designs user access controls, monitors activities, and maintains appropriate control mechanisms as transaction volumes grow. The system’s actual effectiveness will continue to be assessed throughout its operation.

“With the treasury and foreign exchange trading system, Cloud First is not merely an infrastructure choice; it is how VIB creates greater scalability, operational capacity, and governance at a higher level, enabling technology to become an integral part of the bank’s growth capabilities,” said Tran Nhat Minh, deputy CEO in charge of Technology, VIB.

Eric Yeo, general manager of AWS Vietnam, said, “Financial institutions consistently demand the highest standards of security, resilience, and compliance for mission-critical systems. We are proud to partner with VIB on its journey to migrate the core systems supporting its treasury and foreign exchange operations to the cloud.”

VIR