VPBank’s brand value nears $1.3bln, up 45%

At an event announcing the 100 most valuable brands in Vietnam in 2023 on August 16, Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy, named VPBank as one of four organizations posting the highest growth in brand value.

VPBank’s brand, according to Brand Finance, is now valued at $1.3 billion. Over the course of the last seven years, since it was first evaluated by the consultancy at $56 million, its brand value has increased 23-fold.

Thanks to this swift growth, VPBank has jumped to 173^rd among 500 global banks with the most valuable brand, improving 32 places compared to 2022. It is also the fourth consecutive year that VPBank’s ranking in the report has improved.

Its Brand Rating was at AA+, while its Brand Strength Index, according to Brand Finance, was 77.61. With this score, VPBank is considered one of the two fastest-growing banking brands in Vietnam.

“The brand value has improved due to strong growth in brand strength,” said Mr. Alex Haigh, Managing Director in Asia Pacific at Brand Finance. “This impressive growth is the result of remarkable communications and brand identity repositioning and realigning activities from the mid-half of 2022 as well as financial projections.”

The synergy of the Vietnamese market’s potential and the bank’s recent M&A deals, along with the completed acquisitions of OPES Insurance and VPBank Securities, have promoted the bank’s brand and enabled it to serve all customers.

“This is due acknowledgement of all the bank’s efforts in developing a comprehensive and diverse segment strategy focusing mainly on retail banking and SMEs, combined with a unique business model to bring prosperity to customers towards its ultimate goal: Prospering Vietnam,” said Ms. Pham Thi Nhung, VPBank’s Deputy CEO.

Last year, credibility and brand strength enabled VPBank to successfully mobilize more than $1 billion from global financial institutions, diversifying the funding for medium and long-term loans and ensuring liquidity ratios. Compared to the end of 2021, customer deposits also improved, by nearly 30 per cent. The consolidated capital adequacy rate (CAR) under Basel II standards reached nearly 15 per cent; among the best in the market. The bank’s pre-tax profit increased 48 per cent year-on-year in 2022 and exceeded $1 billion.

In the first half of 2023, despite troublesome macro-economic factors, VPBank went on to attract approximately 4 million new customers, raising its total customer base within its ecosystem to 28 million, equivalent to one-third of Vietnam’s population.

This year, Moody’s retained the bank’s credit rating at Ba3. As a result, the growth in brand power, inner strength, and business prospects fortified confidence at Japanese bank SMBC about acquiring a 15 per cent stake in VPBank and becoming its strategic investor.

On the occasion of its 30^th anniversary last week, VPBank leadership officially announced the target of taking VPBank into the top 100 biggest banks in Asia by 2026. At the same time, the bank also announced five new core values: Integrity, Aspiration, Discipline, Innovation, Efficiency & Effectiveness, in a forward-looking move to achieve its goals.