Taiwan’s Cathay United Bank (CUB) will tap the consumer finance segment in Vietnam in the coming time, as part of its strategy to reposition business activities in the region, a senior leader of the bank has said.

This marks a turning point after 18 years of operation in the Vietnamese market as the bank constantly expands its business expansion in Asia - Pacific, said Benny Miao, executive vice president, managing director and head of Southeast Asia region at CUB.

Vietnam has an advantage of being not only a potential market with a young population of 100 million and a median age of 30, but also an advanced market where consumers have increasingly become familiar with digital payment tools, the senior executive commented.

CUB has built a proprietary digital consumer finance platform and will launch many digital products and services in Vietnam in the near future, part of its efforts to become a leading Taiwanese bank in Southeast Asia in digital consumer finance, he revealed.

Vietnam has maintained its strong attractiveness to foreign investors, Miao commented, elaborating that in addition to investments from Taiwan, large investment flows from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea have been poured into Vietnam.

He pointed out that many Taiwanese companies have moved and are moving production and manufacturing facilities to Vietnam, he added.

In addition, Vietnam has emerged as one of the top destinations for foreign companies looking to mitigate risks amid the global supply chains being restructured, he added.

Lu Wei Chieh, general director of CUB’s Ho Chi Minh City branch, also affirmed the CUB wishes to expand its service scope by providing financial solutions to individual clients in Vietnam, in addition to current financial services such as trade finance, cash management and cross-border payments to Vietnamese corporate clients and Taiwan-invested enterprises. 

This expansion marks an important transformation for the CUB to provide comprehensive banking services and diverse financial solutions for all clients, Lu said, adding that the bank believes that its ongoing brand positioning strategy is a proper step forward.

He affirmed that the bank will soon introduce digital products to individual customers in 2024.

CUB aims to position itself as a versatile digital technology bank specializing in providing optimal products and experiences for users in Vietnam, where the bank’s net profit in Vietnam has grown steadily over the past three years, along with Vietnam’s GDP growth, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper citing Lu as saying. 

Headquartered in Taipei, CUB is one of the largest commercial banks in Taiwan, with more than 233 offices and branches across the Asia - Pacific region, employing a total of over 10,000 employees, according to Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep (Business Forum) magazine. 

In Vietnam, Cathay United Bank has been licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam to operate with one branch in Ho Chi Minh City and two representative offices in Hanoi and central Quang Nam Province. 

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