Financial behemoth MB Group likely to secure $5 billion in revenue by 2026

With distinctive digitally-driven initiatives, MB is executing new banking propositions that uphold its role as one of the largest, most prestigious financial behemoths in Vietnam

Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) held its online Analyst Meeting on July 22. The event saw the participation of 300 guests, including representatives of 90 domestic and international investment funds and 30 securities firms, both domestically and internationally. The meeting discussed MB Group’s achievements in the first six months of the year and important strategic goals in its next phase of development.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has exerted adverse pressure on the whole economy, MB Group has proven resilient by maintaining stable operations and upbeat business performance.

By the end of the second quarter, MB achieved total consolidated assets of more than VND523 trillion ($22.74 billion), up 5.65 per cent compared to the end of 2020. Its total operating income in H1 reached VND18.117 trillion ($787.7 million), up 40 per cent on-year. Total consolidated pre-tax profit in H1 reached VND7.968 trillion ($346.43 million), a remarkable increase of 56 per cent on-year. MB also enjoyed top business performance in the period with a return on assets (ROA) ratio of 2.48 per cent and a return on equity (ROE) ratio of 23.28 per cent.

These outstanding results are a testament to MB’s effective business strategy with a focus on digital transformation. Within H1, with a series of innovative products conveying MB’s competitive advantages, such as introducing payments with VietQR code, personalised bank account number, phone number as account number, MB has successfully gained customers' trust, clearly illustrated by its 2.5 million new customers. The number of digital transactions nearly tripling on-year with transaction value reaching VND1.7 quadrillion ($73.9 billion), five times as much as in the same period of 2020.

MB commits to invest $50 million in radical technology infrastructure development over the past three years and at least in the next five years

MB's ambition to become a leading digital bank as well as cement its leadership has been clearly illustrated in its commitment to make an annual investment of $50 million in technology infrastructure over the past three years and at least in the next five years.

At the online Analyst Meeting, vice chairman of the Board of Directors cum CEO Luu Trung Thai emphasised that MB is determined to become the most convenient bank. “We aspire to elevate our position to greater heights to address the urgent needs of our clients with best-of-its-kind, diverse banking services.”

“We are determined to cement our solid position in the top 5 largest and most prestigious lenders in Vietnam while striving to broaden our horizon and fulfill more ambitious targets in the new strategic phase of our development. We believe the pandemic has created even bigger windows of opportunity for digitalisation. MB – as one of the most trusted banks in Vietnam – together with other subsidiaries, will move full-steam ahead to deliver seamless digitally-led financial products to customers,” he told VIR.

In addition to MB's solid performance, in the first six months of the year, MB’s six subsidiaries also achieved an outstanding growth in business scale. More specifically, Military Insurance JSC (MIC) jumped up one rank to be in the Top 5 of the industry, while MB Ageas Life Insurance Co., Ltd. rose one rank up to be in the Top 11 agency channel APE (with 2.5 per cent of the market share), accompanied by the growth rate of 266 per cent – the highest in the market.

“The subsidiaries’ contribution to MB Group’s total profit accounted for 13.2 per cent, which is a strong improvement compared to five years ago,” said Thai.

Speaking at the meeting, Dam Nhan Duc, head of Research and Corporate Development stressed that in the 2017-2021 phase, MB has achieved consistently faster growth rates than the average of the seven largest Vietnamese commercial banks and the top three banks of each country in the region and the world. Thanks to that, MB’s ranking has been remarkably improved. The revenue and profit of MB Group by the end of 2021 are forecast to triple compared to 2016.

“In the next five years, if MB Group can maintain this growth or a bit slower due to the increasing scale, the group will be highly likely to achieve $5 billion in revenue and $2 billion by the end of 2026.”