BIDV review: services, fees, pros and cons

BIDV — the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam — is Hanoi-headquartered and, by total assets, the largest bank in the country. It began life in 1957 as the Bank for Construction of Vietnam, was renamed the Bank for Investment and Construction of Vietnam in 1981, and took its current name in 1990. Shares have traded on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange under ticker BID since January 2014.

The State Bank of Vietnam, acting for the State, holds close to 81% of BIDV's charter capital. South Korea's KEB Hana Bank became the bank's first foreign strategic shareholder in November 2019, buying roughly 15% for about VND 20.3 trillion (≈€800 million at the time) and committing to multi-year technical assistance on governance, risk management and digital banking. By the end of 2025, BIDV's total assets exceeded VND 3.3 quadrillion (roughly €125 billion), and the bank reported a record consolidated pre-tax profit of about VND 36 trillion (≈€1.35 billion) for the year — scale that places it, alongside Vietnam's other 'Big Four' lenders, among the country's systemically important state-controlled banks.

For a foreign buyer, BIDV's relevance sits less in mortgage financing and more in the domestic banking infrastructure around a purchase. Non-resident foreigners holding a valid passport and visa can open an account, though — as at every Vietnamese bank — transfer and withdrawal limits step up materially once you hold a Temporary Residence Card and move from 'non-resident' to 'resident' status. What BIDV does not offer is a mortgage to a non-resident foreign individual: local bank lending remains, in practice, closed to non-resident buyers, so most foreign purchases in Hanoi are funded from overseas savings, an international lender, or a developer payment plan rather than a VND loan — see our financing guide and mortgage guide for what is realistically possible.

Where BIDV does show up directly in a purchase file is on the developer side: as one of Vietnam's largest project-finance banks, it is frequently the issuing bank behind the pre-sale bank guarantee (bảo lãnh) that developers must provide before collecting deposits on off-plan units — always confirm the specific guarantee for your unit as part of standard due diligence, since not every project banks with BIDV. After handover, its branch network is a practical option for settling the maintenance fund and ongoing service charges. Bringing purchase funds into the country is a separate step, best planned through our currency transfer guide rather than assumed to run through any single bank.

We do not cite star ratings or customer testimonials in this review — independently verifiable, foreigner-specific customer-review data for BIDV's retail banking does not exist in a form we can stand behind, and we will not invent it. What is verifiable is BIDV's public record: continuous operation since 1957, a HOSE listing since 2014 with the disclosure obligations that come with it, majority State Bank of Vietnam ownership, and a 2019 strategic partnership with KEB Hana Bank that brought external technical assistance across governance, risk management and digital banking. The bank closed 2025 with total assets above VND 3.3 quadrillion (≈€125 billion) and a record consolidated pre-tax profit near VND 36 trillion (≈€1.35 billion) — the scale and reporting discipline of a systemically important institution, even though it is not run as an internationally-oriented private bank.

Legal references used in this review: the Housing Law 2023 (foreign ownership quota and 50-year tenure referenced across our guides) and the Law on Real Estate Business 2023 (pre-sale bank guarantee requirement for off-plan projects). Corporate facts about BIDV — founding date, HOSE listing, ownership structure, network size and 2025 results — are drawn from BIDV's own public disclosures and Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange listing records, cited here by name only, in line with our policy of linking exclusively to official government and legal sources.