MB's must-win game and how to conquer 30 million digital customers

A few years ago, not many people thought that a bank with military roots could become a formidable force in the technology race. But now, with more than 30 million customers, more than 3 billion transactions per year, an average of ~9 million transactions per day on the MBBank App and nearly 97% of transactions conducted on digital channels, maintaining the top 1 position in Napas scale. MB's story has become one of the most typical examples of digital transformation in Vietnam.

For MB, digital transformation is not an option, but a survival strategy of the Bank.

MB aims to comprehensively digitally transform the entire organization, from internal operating processes, working methods, to corporate culture. The goal is to turn MB into a true "digital enterprise" - not only on electronic transaction channels, but also a completely new operating model, integrating technology, data and streamlined processes, helping customers access services anytime - anywhere - on any need on a single ecosystem.

MBbank's difference is its ability to master technology, self-develop digital platforms and flexibly connect with fintech partners.

Pressure to transform and problems from traditional infrastructure

At the Conference of the Prime Minister working with pioneering enterprises in digital transformation and promoting growth on April 15, 2025, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MB Luu Trung Thai spoke about the need for banks to change their mindset and apply the methods of technology companies to promote digital transformation and growth; this is especially important and is a prerequisite for banks to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment and make the most of opportunities from technology.

Currently, MB's annual investment in IT accounts for about 4.5% of total revenue. To meet the growing demand for customers and transactions, MB's Board of Directors has determined that it needs to invest about 100 million USD in technology continuously for 7 years with the goal of applying the latest technology to solve the problem of having customers as quickly as possible.

In addition, MB also invests heavily in training and resource development with a team of more than 1,100 IT personnel, accounting for ~ 8% of the bank's total staff.

"MB identifies digital transformation as an opportunity and a strategic goal with the vision of becoming a digital enterprise by 2026" - Mr. Vu Ngoc Thanh, Deputy Director of MB's Information Technology Division shared. The destination is very clear, but the path to realization faces the first and biggest challenge coming from the technology infrastructure itself.

Over the years, MB's traditional IT infrastructure (on-premise) has been systematically invested in to create a solid foundation for the stable deployment and operation of the Bank's IT systems. However, facing the rapid pace of digital transformation and the need to quickly expand its scale to capture the market; MB realized that it needed to change its strategy in infrastructure architecture to more flexibly respond to new requirements.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Thanh said that MB needs to meet the large resource needs for short-term programs within a short period of time (from a few hours to a few days). While traditional infrastructure investment and procurement is often complicated and takes an average of 3 to 6 months, using Cloud infrastructure with just 1 click helps MB easily meet the changing needs of the market and expand business scale when necessary. Using Cloud infrastructure allows the bank to quickly test and deploy new services, thereby creating a competitive advantage, customer data stored on the cloud has better resilience and is more flexible.

In addition, in the process of cooperating with external units, MB needs to deploy independent resource areas so that partners can proactively manage, ensure safety and minimize impacts on the common infrastructure. This is a limitation in the on-premise system designed synchronously according to specific internal processes.

It was these barriers that prompted MB to choose a strategy that combines on-premise “stronghold” and the flexibility of cloud computing – laying the foundation for modern hybrid cloud architecture.

What is special about Hybrid Cloud architecture?

“In the digital transformation process, security and legal compliance are always top priorities for MB,” said Mr. Thanh. The State Bank’s regulations on data storage in Vietnam are one of the prerequisites. This makes MB prioritize suppliers with domestic infrastructure and must meet international information security standards.

In the multi-cloud strategy to maximize the strengths of each partner, Viettel Solutions with the Viettel Cloud platform has become an important piece. However, the hybrid cloud model often faces major challenges in complex management and ensuring consistency between environments.

MB's approach is to maintain a team of IT engineers and experts with deep expertise in cloud fields, flexible and responsive to market changes.

The flexibility and speed of the Cloud infrastructure are clearly demonstrated through the story of deploying the eKYC service (electronic customer identification). MB is one of the leading banks in the market for this service by deploying the solution on Public Cloud.

“However, after the State Bank requested to store customer data domestically, we had to move transactions from public cloud back to MB’s domestic private cloud infrastructure. This process included partner evaluation, finding solutions, conversion, training… in a relatively short time, about 3-5 months,” Mr. Thanh recounted.

The ability to respond quickly to such a complex project is a testament to the capabilities of the MB team and the infrastructure readiness of strategic partners. “Viettel’s Cloud infrastructure capabilities and team of experts have helped MB quickly deploy services to customers, typically the eKYC service with high requirements on loading and security,” said Mr. Thanh.

Viettel Solutions with Viettel Cloud platform has become an important piece in MB's digital transformation strategy.

In addition to Cloud, the cooperation with Viettel is also expanded in many other areas such as providing infrastructure for disaster recovery centers (DR), SOC security monitoring solutions and security assessment services for MB products. All these pieces create a solid foundation, a technological "launch pad" to help MB accelerate.

The number of transactions doubled each year, but the number of employees did not increase.

The results of the digital transformation journey at MB are not only in the reported numbers, but are reflected in the way this bank operates and develops.

Financially, moving to the cloud helps MB optimize monthly operating costs by about 30%.

More importantly, the solid infrastructure has paved the way for MB to apply the most advanced technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being strongly exploited by this bank to improve productivity and risk management. “Thanks to AI, MB's system has increased its ability to detect and prevent risks. Every month, we have detected, prevented and protected nearly 5,000 customers with a total financial value of hundreds of billions of VND on the MB APP,” Mr. Thanh revealed.

In addition, the Document Digitization Solution based on GENAI and Agentic Ai artificial intelligence helps automatically process, analyze, and retrieve information while supporting users to simplify data entry and checking, supporting decision making:

- Issuing import letters of credit (LCNK) with an accuracy rate of up to 93%, reducing total process time by 16%, and operating time by 22%.

- LCNK issuance consulting: accuracy rate up to 90%, 20% reduction in consulting time

MB's virtual assistant (AI Agent) has been helping users search for information and perform the tasks they want. In particular, AI is very supportive in improving labor productivity and the quality of IT engineers in the process of building and developing software. According to Mr. Thanh, the ability to increase productivity can reach 30-40%.

Of course, AI implementation requires huge resources, especially dedicated GPU processors. “This is a problem that businesses are facing. MB is also working with partners like Viettel to have GPU infrastructure to meet this need,” Mr. Thanh added.

From a bank following the traditional model, MB has truly transformed itself into a digital enterprise. With the goal of generating 50-70% of revenue from digital platforms by 2026 and further serving 40 million customers by 2029, deeply integrating AI and Open Finance technology into the entire financial services ecosystem.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/cuoc-choi-bat-buoc-phai-chien-thang-cua-mb-va-cach-chinh-phuc-30-trieu-khach-hang-so-d319394.html