By
Bach Quang
Wed, October 8, 2025 | 7:06 am GMT+7
Vietnam’s stock market will be reclassified from “frontier” to “secondary emerging” from September 21 next year, subject to an interim review in March 2026, FTSE Russell stated in a release.
The global index provider published the results of its annual country classification review in a statement on Tuesday (early Wednesday, Vietnamese time).
The interim review in March 2026 aims “to determine whether sufficient progress has been made in enabling access to global brokers, which is essential to support index replication and meet the needs of the international investment community.”
Illustration courtesy of the Thi truong Tai chinh Tien te (Monetary-Financial Market) magazine.
FTSE Russell stated that it recognizes the progress made by the Vietnamese market authorities in evolving its market by removing the prefunding requirement for foreign Institutional investors (FII), with the implementation of a non-refunding (NPF) model and establishing a formal process for handling failed trades.
“FTSE Russell acknowledges that Vietnam has met all the criteria of the Secondary Emerging market status under the FTSE Equity Country Classification Framework.  FTSE Russell will continue to monitor developments closely and welcomes feedback from index stakeholders to enable the reclassification to proceed as planned in September 2026,” it added.
Nguyen Van Thang, Vietnamese Minister of Finance, said the official recognition and upgrade of Vietnam’s securities market is clear evidence of the country’s sound development path and its growing capacity to integrate deeply into the global financial system.
“The Ministry of Finance remains committed to advancing deeper and broader reforms, maximizing accessibility for both domestic and international investors, while accelerating the modernization and digitalization of its market infrastructure – with the objective of establishing an increasingly transparent and efficient market,” the release quoted him as saying.
David Sol, global head of Policy at FTSE Russell, commented: “FTSE Russell congratulates the Vietnamese market authorities on the significant progress made in aligning with international standards. The reclassification of Vietnam reflects the implementation of key market infrastructure enhancements, and we look forward to continued collaboration to ensure sustained progress ahead of the target reclassification date in September 2026.”