London (VNA) - Vietnam can draw on lessons from the London Financial Centre to build a globally competitive financial market for its next growth phase, Executive Director of the London Southside Chamber of Commerce Radiana Vlahova told Vietnam News Agency.
As global integration deepens, financial governance needs a mindset upgrade. London’s experience, Vlahova said, shows that regulation isn’t designed to stamp out risk but to enable informed risk-taking, and such a spirit must shape how rules are interpreted, monitored, and enforced daily.
Recent policy moves in Vietnam are pointing in this direction. Locking in that approach and applying it consistently would give the country a firmer footing to boost its credibility in global capital markets.
A top reform is drawing bright lines among financial regulators. In London, she noted, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) oversees the safety and soundness of banks and insurers, while the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) focuses on market conduct and investor protection, each with a distinct mandate and accountability. Overlapping responsibilities muddy investor expectations, and uncertainty repels capital flows.
Vietnam’s push to streamline its State apparatus offers a timely chance to carve out clearer regulatory lanes and set up transparent coordination mechanisms, creating a predictable climate for domestic and foreign investors alike.
In the race for global capital, speed is a real edge. The London Financial Centre encourages regulators to issue clear, detailed licensing timelines. The FCA is accelerating fund approvals in priority sectors, aiming to cut processing time from three months to one. London has also pioneered the regulatory sandbox, a controlled testbed for new financial products. Vietnam needs this flexibility, plus a clear legal framework for digital assets and fintech, she said.
She also called for a stronger legal foundation for corporate bond issuance, greater transparency, and homegrown independent credit rating agencies, alongside modernised oversight using an AI-driven fraud detection system and real-time compliance tracking.
According to her, the Vietnamese Government has already acted to stabilise the financial market and improve transparency. Staying the course and layering in advanced supervisory tech will help Vietnam to build a financial market that is not only large in scale but also strong in quality.
London rose to dominate global finance through an unwavering commitment to the rule of law, governance consistency, and a culture of responsible risk-taking, Vlahova said. Those universal principles underpin market confidence everywhere and are well within Vietnam’s grasp, she added.
The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange opened in 2000, followed by the Hanoi bourse in 2005, marking the start of Vietnam’s modern capital market. Since then, the government has steadily revamped the legal framework, from the 2006 Securities Law to its 2019 update, and pushed ahead with market upgrades, culminating in the launch of the KRX trading system in May 2025.
Under a market upgrade approved by the Prime Minister in September 2025, Vietnam seeks to join the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by 2030. The popular MSCI index, developed by Morgan Stanley Capital International, guides investment decisions for some of the world’s largest institutional investors. Hitting that target demands not just technical fixes but a higher level of institutional architecture, exactly where London’s experience can light the way.
On September 21, 2026, Vietnam will officially be classified as an emerging market by FTSE Russell, marking a milestone long anticipated by global investors./.
