Vietnam: the New Strategic IT Destination for US Banking & Finance Institutions

As US banks and insurers accelerate modernization across digital banking, AI, cloud migration, and compliance systems, Vietnam is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most reliable engineering hubs for high-impact financial technology programs.

Vietnam’s IT industry is valued at approximately $10-$11.4 billion in 2023-2024, with projections to surpass US$14.64 billion in 2030.

Long known for competitiveness in Fintech software development, Vietnam has now matured into a destination of strategic innovation, operational stability, and industry-ready engineering talent – making it a preferred partner for many of the world’s leading financial institutions.

This blog post will explain why Vietnam is the new IT destination for reliable Fintech development solutions.

Major global institutions have already placed Vietnam at the center of their digital transformation roadmaps. National Australia Bank established its first international innovation center in Vietnam. Visa launched an innovation space in Ho Chi Minh City. Insurers including AIA, Manulife, and Prudential are running core digital services – from e-claims and loyalty platforms to AI-enabled workflows – through their Vietnam operations.

This shift is supported by Vietnam’s accelerating technology capabilities: more than 530,000 software engineers, 57,000 new ICT graduates yearly, and global rankings that place the country among the world’s most competitive technology ecosystems – #23 in Hackerrank’s Programming Olympics, #6 on the World AI Index, and Top 3 globally in blockchain development.

Vietnam’s macroeconomic environment offers rare long-term certainty at a time when financial institutions are re-evaluating delivery risk. The World Bank identifies Vietnam as one of Asia’s most politically stable markets. The IMF ranks it among the world’s five fastest-growing economies through 2028. A.T. Kearney includes Vietnam in the global top ten for outsourcing readiness.

This stability is paired with a compelling price-quality ratio. Typical US salary benchmarks dramatically outpace Vietnam across key roles: software engineers ($110k–150k in the US vs. $15k–25k in Vietnam), data scientists ($115k–150k vs. $15k–22k), business analysts ($90k–120k vs. $12k–20k), QA engineers ($85k–110k vs. $10k–18k), and solution architects ($150k–200k vs. $30k–45k).
For US institutions, this enables larger, more specialized teams – and more modernization progress per technology dollar.

Vietnam’s time zone alignment with US business hours also supports 24-hour development cycles, accelerating modernization throughput by 20 to 30 percent for many institutions.

Vietnam’s domestic banks are among Southeast Asia’s highest digital spenders, investing $100–150 million annually in modernization. This sustained investment has fueled significant new expertise in cloud-native core banking, real-time data systems, embedded finance, digital lending, and modern AML/KYC workflows.

Synodus – a fintech software development firm– played a critical role in Vietcombank’s data modernization. The company designed and deployed an enterprise Data Integration Hub that unified fragmented datasets across branches and headquarters. The result was a major reduction in data silos, improved real-time reporting for regulatory requirements, and enhanced decision-making capabilities across the bank’s operations.

Vietnam’s policy direction supports innovation while preserving financial stability. The Fintech Sandbox 2025 allows controlled testing of new financial models, including digital lending frameworks. The 2025 Tokenized Asset Legal Pilot adopts a “develop and regulate” approach to digital assets rather than a prohibitive stance. The National Digital Transformation Strategy provides a predictable technology roadmap through 2030.

Synodus has aligned closely with this regulatory direction. With more than a decade of blockchain engineering experience, the company is currently building Vietnam’s first legal Stock-Backed Peer-to-Peer Lending platform – designed from inception to comply with upcoming digital asset and fintech regulations.

US BFSI institutions are increasingly moving away from large global outsourcing vendors whose models rely on high churn, ticket-based delivery, and reactive execution. Many financial leaders cite slow cycles, inconsistent quality, and teams that “wait for instructions” instead of driving outcomes.

This is where Synodus stands out. Designed from the ground up for financial modernization, Synodus’ domain-fit teams include more than 150 specialists across lending, payments, AML/KYC, digital banking, and compliance workflows. The company operates on a performance-led model measured by cycle-time reduction, architectural correctness, system stability, and business value – rather than volume of tasks completed.

“Our team thinks with the client,” said Cong Nguyen, CEO of Synodus. “We are built to deliver systems that last, platforms that scale, and modernization outcomes that give financial institutions a competitive advantage.”

With its strong technical talent, stable investment climate, and maturing financial regulatory landscape, Vietnam is poised to become one of the most influential engineering hubs for US banks and insurers over the next decade.

Vietnam offers what global financial institutions need most: reliability, scale, innovation, and partners capable of delivering real modernization – not just capacity.

Synodus is a Vietnam-based technology engineering partner specializing in BFSI modernization. With 150+ domain-fit experts across lending, payments, AML/KYC, digital banking, core extensions, and blockchain, Synodus delivers performance-led, outcome-focused solutions for regulated institutions. The company is known for its proactive product mindset and its work on large-scale data, AI, and digital transformation programs for leading banks in Southeast Asia.