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Finance, banking and fintech

Brand design for the finance industry

In finance, trust is the product. Everything else is how you deliver it.

Users hand you their money and their data. They only do that when everything looks solid and speaks plainly. Sinh Vũ helps your brand create that feeling at every touchpoint.

Send Sinh Vũ your briefSee the industry's pain points
A set of sample items for a finance brand: a payment card, an app interface, a branch sign and a product brochure
Industry landscape01

Where does finance stand in Vietnam?

Cashless payment, QR codes above all, has become a habit, and financial apps are multiplying fast. Users have more choice and are warier of scams. A clear brand is the first layer of protection for trust.

337 million

QR code payment transactions in the first nine months of 2025, worth about VND 288 trillion (Payment Department, State Bank of Vietnam)

Source: Sài Gòn Giải Phóng newspaper, citing the Payment Department of the State Bank of Vietnam, 19 Nov 2025
1 Jan 2026

The amended Law on Advertising takes effect: warnings and cautions in advertising must be displayed fully and clearly, in contrasting type no smaller than the rest of the text

Source: Toà án magazine, new points in the amended Law on Advertising 2025 (Article 1, clause 12)

Advantages

  • Users stay for a long timeOnce people are used to a bank or a wallet, they hesitate to switch.
  • Daily touchpointsAn app opened every day is a chance for the brand to be remembered.
  • Peace of mind is a reason to chooseClarity and safety make people pick one name, even when the alternatives look alike.

Challenges

  • Everyone claims safe and convenientBlue, shields, padlocks: financial brands easily end up looking the same.
  • Impersonation scamsFraudsters fake interfaces and messages; a faint brand is easier to copy.
  • Products that are hard to understandInterest rates, terms and benefits are complicated, so users hesitate to decide.
Profiles02

Which stage are you at?

Each stage has its own brand problem. Once you know where you are, you will know what to do first.

A newly licensed or soon-to-launch fintech

  • The product is ready, the brand is not
  • You have to convince both users and banking partners
Do this first
Lock positioning and the identity system at the same time as the interface, not after it.
Roadmap: Start-up

A long-established institution that needs a refresh

  • Younger users find the brand dated
  • The new app does not match the branches
Do this first
Review what holds trust in place and keep it, and what gets in the way and change it.
Roadmap: Refresh

An organization with many products and channels

  • Each product has its own design team and its own look
  • Branches, the app and advertising speak in three voices
Do this first
Build a digital design system and a shared brand guideline for every team and channel.
Roadmap: Systemize

A small accounting, insurance or financial advisory firm

  • Sales depend on the founder's personal reputation
  • Profiles and quotes are made in-house
Do this first
Find what you do best, then give your profile and documents a professional face.
Roadmap: Start-up
Pain points03

Six pain points design can fix

Design cannot replace a good financial product. But it can fix the pain points that make users hesitate before the sign-up button.

Customer journey04

Where do users decide to trust?

Users pass through five stages before they hand over money. Wherever the brand falls short, that is where you lose them.

  1. Awareness

    Sees an ad, hears from someone they know, gets a referral at checkout.

    Common mistakeCannot be told apart from dozens of other names.

  2. Checking

    Looks for a license, who is behind it, and whether anyone has been scammed.

    Common mistakeLegal information and the operating entity are hard to find.

  3. Sign-up

    Downloads the app, verifies identity, reads the terms.

    Common mistakeA tangled flow and hard-to-read terms, so users drop out halfway.

  4. In use

    Transfers money, pays, invests, calls the hotline.

    Common mistakeEach channel has its own voice, so users doubt which one is real.

  5. Loyalty

    Uses more products, refers family and friends.

    Common mistakeNo reason to stay beyond habit.

Segments05

Six segments, six ways to earn trust

Banks sell stability, e-wallets sell speed and safety, lenders sell transparency, insurers sell peace of mind, securities firms sell clarity, accountants sell care. Each segment has its own page covering the pain points and the approach.

Banks

  • Retail banks
  • Corporate banks
  • Digital banks

Trust signalsStable yet approachable, with branches and the app feeling like one.

  • A refresh can lose existing customers
  • The app and the branches drift apart
Explore this segment

E-wallets and payments

  • E-wallets
  • Payment gateways
  • Money transfer and QR payments

Trust signalsFast, clear, with a mark of its own that cannot be mistaken.

  • Impersonation
  • An interface that gets cluttered feature by feature
Explore this segment

Consumer lending

  • Consumer loans
  • Unsecured loans
  • Capital-matching platforms

Trust signalsTerms, interest rates and fees stated plainly from the start.

  • An industry with a bad reputation
  • Tightly regulated advertising claims
Explore this segment

Insurance

  • Life insurance
  • Health insurance
  • Property insurance

Trust signalsBenefits told simply, with fast payouts that are real.

  • Buyers do not want to think about risk
  • Advisors overstate
Explore this segment

Securities and investment

  • Securities firms
  • Investment apps
  • Asset management

Trust signalsClear figures, professional tools, no hype.

  • Being tied to speculation
  • Screens overloaded with data
Explore this segment

Accounting and audit

  • Accounting services
  • Independent audit
  • Accounting software

Trust signalsCareful, on time, and plain-spoken with business owners.

  • Everyone looks equally dry
  • Sales rest on personal reputation
Explore this segment
What changes06

What changes when Sinh Vũ is on your side?

Sinh Vũ does not promise user numbers. The job is to make every touchpoint speak in one voice, solid enough for users to hand over their money.

Users cannot remember who is who

Users recognize you on every channel

Every product team has its own look

Every screen follows one design system

Hard-to-read terms, users give up halfway

The product is explained clearly and users tap with confidence

A refresh you fear will lose existing customers

A refresh with a roadmap that keeps the trust anchors intact

Roadmaps07

Services that fit your scale

Three roadmaps by scale. Every roadmap does the core first and the rest only when it is truly needed.

Projects08

Sinh Vũ's work in this industry and nearby ones

Sinh Vũ has built brands for an e-wallet and a capital-matching platform, along with several technology platforms that need user trust. The shared problem is being fast and trustworthy at once. iCheck and Metfone are neighboring industries: a product-authentication app and a mobile carrier, both facing the same problem of earning trust before users hand over data or money.

eMoney, fast and at ease
Mobile finance

eMoney, fast and at ease

For millions of people in Cambodia, the Metfone SIM in their pocket is also where they keep their money. eMoney, the money transfer wallet of Metfone and MB Bank…

View case

Money moves fast while people stay at ease.

MFinance, trusted enough by both sides of the money
Financial technology

MFinance, trusted enough by both sides of the money

MFinance connects people with idle capital to people who need it for business, which means convincing two groups who look at money in opposite ways. Sinh Vũ built the positioning…

View case

Trustworthy enough for lenders and borrowers alike.

iCheck, trust you can scan
Consumer technology

iCheck, trust you can scan

The first identity for iCheck, the barcode-scanning app that opened product origin tracing in Vietnam, turning a cold scan into a nod of consumer trust.

View case

User trust built on transparency.

Metfone, the standard outlived the colour
Mobile telecoms, Cambodia

Metfone, the standard outlived the colour

Metfone is Viettel's mobile network in Cambodia, selling through a chain that runs from the boulevards of Phnom Penh to provincial markets…

View case

One identity standard that has held up for more than ten years.

Further reading09

More on finance and fintech

Perspectives

In finance, trust is not an emotion. It is a design asset.In the financial sector, every detail of identity serves a single purpose: to make customers feel safe when handing…Read Refreshing a financial brand without losing trustRebranding in finance is not about choosing between modernity and trustworthiness. This article analyzes how to build…Read Newly licensed fintech: the double trust dilemma.Fintech recently licensed faces a tough challenge: looking modern enough to attract young users, yet trustworthy…Read

Expertise

Fintech and finance: brand strategy starts from trust.In finance and fintech, trust is the biggest barrier to conversion. This guide outlines how to build a branding…Read Identity guidelines or design systemIdentity standards and design systems are not two levels but two tools for two different problems. This page helps…Read Rebranding or refreshing: choose the right direction.Refreshing and rebranding are two different things. Choosing incorrectly can waste money and undermine the brand…Read
Free toolTouchpoint map for this industrySee the five stages customers pass through, where they drop off most, then rate the five touchpoints to fix first.Open the tool Free toolPalette checkEnter color codes or drop a logo and see whether text is readable, whether print goes dull, and what people with color vision deficiency see.Open the tool

The principles behind it

  1. 2.01The category sets the visual rules more than individual personality does; to be different you must know which rules are the entry ticket and which are mere habit.
  2. 2.02A difference is real only when buyers can see it in one glance at a real point of sale, not on a positioning comparison chart.
  3. 2.03Map the category rules with photographs of products where they are actually sold, then mark what they have in common.
Read the chapter: Reading the market and category rules
FAQ10

Frequently asked questions

At a minimum: positioning, a logo, colors, type, an app icon, and a digital design system for the interface. If you have several products or several teams, you also need brand guidelines.

You can, but it is very hard to stand out because so many names already do. A brand that is hard to mistake also helps users recognize the real one among impersonation pages. Sinh Vũ looks for what is distinctive first, then picks the shape.

From 1 Jan 2026, the amended Law on Advertising requires content to be truthful and not misleading, and warnings must be displayed clearly in type no smaller than the rest. The specific conditions for banking, lending, insurance and securities advertising sit in sector laws, so the final version needs review by your organization's legal team.

Audit first: ask existing customers what makes them trust you. Keep those cues, change what gets in the way, and tell customers in advance why you are changing.

The core identity usually takes a few weeks to a few months, depending on scale and the number of internal review rounds. The duration of each deliverable is listed on the matching service page.

eMoney (an e-wallet) and MFinance (a capital-matching platform). In neighboring industries: iCheck (product traceability) and Metfone (telecoms).

Sources cited on this page

  1. Sài Gòn Giải Phóng newspaper: cashless transactions in the first nine months of 2025 (citing the Payment Department, State Bank of Vietnam)
  2. Toà án magazine: new points in the amended Law on Advertising 2025
  3. Decree 342/2025/ND-CP, Article 4 (hethongphapluat.com): read; it covers cosmetics advertising only

Tell Sinh Vũ about your product

A few lines about your organization or product and what is stuck is enough. Sinh Vũ reads it and replies within one working day.

Send your brief
Principles

The craft rules behind this industry

Every industry already has visual rules that buyers use to recognise the category. Three principles from the Sinh Vũ craft doctrine decide which of those rules to keep and where to differ.

  1. 2.01PrincipleThe category sets the visual rules more than individual personality does; to be different you must know which rules are the entry ticket and which are mere habit.
  2. 2.02PrincipleA difference is real only when buyers can see it in one glance at a real point of sale, not on a positioning comparison chart.
  3. 2.03PracticeMap the category rules with photographs of products where they are actually sold, then mark what they have in common.
Read the chapter on reading the market