Vietnam limits individuals’ portfolio investing abroad to share awards

No text was found that gives a Vietnamese individual a route to buy US shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or Treasuries of his or her choosing.

Decree 135/2015/NĐ-CP, on which the State Bank’s consolidated circular of May 2026 still rests, says an individual of Vietnamese nationality may invest indirectly abroad “only” through a share-award programme, under which a foreign organisation awards shares to people working for foreign organisations in Vietnam.

This article concerns Vietnamese nationals sending money from Vietnam; direct investment abroad, residents’ foreign income and US withholding on non-resident holders are covered in separate articles.

The only decree found on portfolio investment abroad dates from 2015

Article 39(1)(d) of the Investment Law 143/2025/QH15, in force since 1 March 2026, lists buying and selling securities or other valuable papers abroad, and investing through securities funds or other intermediary financial institutions abroad, as a form of outward investment, and leaves its implementation to the Government.

Decree 103/2026/NĐ-CP on direct outward investment excludes that form, and the general decree implementing the Law, Decree 96/2026/NĐ-CP, repeals Decrees 31/2021, 19/2025 and 239/2025, not the 2015 one.

That leaves Decree 135/2015/NĐ-CP on “indirect outward investment” as the only Government decree on the subject that was found. The only amendment found, from 2019, changed and repealed some of the conditions licensed institutions must meet.

The State Bank’s consolidated circular implementing the decree, authenticated on 26 May 2026, still defines the investors it covers by reference to it.

The Ministry of Justice’s national legal database marks Decree 135 “partly expired”; the 2019 repeals would be consistent with that label, but the database lists no text as having ended any part of its effect.

One route for individuals: a share award

Decree 135 recognises two kinds of investor: economic organisations, and individuals of Vietnamese nationality eligible for a share-award programme issued abroad. Article 5 provides that such an individual “may make indirect outward investment only by taking part in a share-award programme issued abroad” (unofficial translation). The State Bank’s circular sets the terms:

• the programme runs only through an implementing organisation established and operating in Vietnam;
• the award may be shares granted directly, or another form that sends no money out of Vietnam;
• dividends and other income reach the employee through the programme’s account.

A requirement to register the programme with the State Bank beforehand was repealed with effect from 12 August 2024. In an explanatory note on the draft of that amendment, the State Bank wrote that Decree 135 had been issued on a principle of “not encouraging” indirect investment abroad, and that an individual sending money abroad to buy award shares is indirect outward investment by an individual.

The note is a draft-stage document, not law. The circular admits only shares granted directly or another form that sends no money out of Vietnam; this indicates that a plan under which an employee pays for shares with money sent from Vietnam is not among them.

Licensed institutions need a certificate and a quota

Decree 135 lets these organisations invest abroad on their own account:

• securities companies and fund management companies;
• securities investment funds, through their manager, and securities investment companies;
• insurers;
• commercial banks and general finance companies;
• the State Capital Investment Corporation.

Securities companies, fund managers and insurers need a registration certificate from the Ministry of Finance, and banks and finance companies one from the State Bank; funds and securities investment companies need an approval instead, for funds from the State Securities Commission (SSC), and the State Capital Investment Corporation needs neither.

The Prime Minister approves a total quota each year, and an institution may send capital abroad only after the State Bank has confirmed its own quota, counted as net foreign currency sent out. The decree bars every investor from using dong borrowed from a credit institution to buy the foreign currency, or borrowed foreign currency.

The State Bank’s circular lists the instruments: shares listed on a foreign stock market; securities fund certificates; and bonds, bills and notes of governments and of issuers rated by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s or Fitch. Banks and finance companies are confined to bonds and money-market instruments.

Against that list, listed US shares therefore fall within the first category, ETF units within the second if treated as fund certificates, and US Treasuries within the third.

Other economic organisations may invest abroad only by entrusting foreign currency to a licensed fund manager or commercial bank; certain foreign-invested organisations may not invest indirectly abroad under the decree at all.

Decree 135 and the Ministry of Finance’s Circular 105/2016/TT-BTC define the entrusting party as an economic organisation and make no provision for individuals. No official list of licensed institutions and no published figure for the annual total were found.

Vietnamese funds may put up to 20% abroad

Under the Ministry of Finance’s consolidated circular on securities investment funds of 16 March 2026, a fund may invest indirectly abroad once the SSC has approved it and the State Bank has granted it a quota, and may not put more than 20% of its net asset value abroad. The rule applies expressly to open-ended funds and to ETFs.

An individual who buys units of such a fund in Vietnam therefore gains exposure to foreign securities without personally investing abroad, although no text says so in those words.

Other products, such as insurance, were not examined, and it was not established which funds hold the approval and the quota.

Foreign-exchange rules speak of indirect investment abroad “when permitted”

The Foreign Exchange Ordinance, as consolidated on 23 September 2026, treats indirect investment as a capital transaction and counts a Vietnamese citizen residing in Vietnam as a resident.

Its Article 15a provides that “when permitted to invest indirectly abroad”, a resident other than a credit institution opens and uses accounts, transfers capital abroad and brings capital and profits home under State Bank rules.

This indicates that the Ordinance does not itself grant that permission or say which text does. The only text found that names a permitted form for individuals is Decree 135’s share-award route.

The Ordinance’s clause letting residents buy, transfer and carry foreign currency abroad “for lawful needs” sits in its article on one-way transfers, which it defines as sponsorship, aid, support of family members or personal spending.

Decree 70/2014/NĐ-CP lists a resident citizen’s one-way purposes: study, treatment, travel and visits, fees, family support, inheritance, settling abroad and “other lawful needs”. Investment is not named. This indicates that buying securities is a capital transaction rather than a one-way transfer; no text says whether “other lawful needs” could cover it.

The Ordinance lets licensed credit institutions, and other organisations the State Bank licenses in listed cases, hold foreign-currency accounts abroad; Decree 135 lets self-investing and entrusted organisations open them. Neither provides for a resident individual.

The State Bank’s foreign-exchange circular for direct investment abroad, Circular 34/2026/TT-NHNN, excludes the portfolio form. The evidence chain behind cross-border capital transfers is covered in a separate article.

A neighbouring question reached the Government’s policy portal in July 2026. Asked whether an individual residing in Vietnam may open an account and trade foreign exchange on foreign platforms, the Đồng Tháp provincial tax office said the question was for the State Bank, and that tax law had no specific rule on such profits. The question concerned currency trading, not securities.

What the securities regulator has said

• June 2022. The Government portal reported an SSC warning to investors on exchanges not run by the Vietnam Exchange and its subsidiaries, after self-styled international securities companies and representatives of international securities exchanges had solicited investors to open accounts and pay into e-wallets. On the platforms the report named, investors are “wholly responsible for their own decisions and are not protected by law” (unofficial translation). The SSC’s own text was not found.
• September 2023. In a notice on crypto-asset trading on apps and exchanges it had not licensed, the SSC said that to trade securities, investors must comply with the rule on opening accounts at securities companies it has licensed, and that it does not manage the exchanges concerned.
• April 2026. Warning about unlicensed advice on social media, the SSC restated that doing securities business or providing securities services without its licence is prohibited by Article 12(4) of the Securities Law.

The Securities Law also reserves the organising of a securities trading market to the Vietnam Exchange and its subsidiaries. These provisions therefore bind those who provide services or run markets; none names the investor as an offender. No warning from the State Bank or the Ministry of Finance aimed at individuals using foreign brokers was found.

The fines, and the acts they attach to

Decree 340/2025/NĐ-CP on money and banking, in force since 9 February 2026, states amounts for individuals and doubles them for organisations. The securities penalty decree, Decree 156/2020/NĐ-CP in its consolidated text of 13 May 2026, states amounts for organisations and halves them for individuals.

Undeclared cash carried across the border falls under the customs rules instead. No decision applying any of these to an individual’s transfer to a foreign broker was found. The table records the acts the decrees describe; none of them is the holding of foreign securities as such.

Tax, briefly

Under the personal income tax law as consolidated in May 2026, a resident is taxed on income arising inside and outside Vietnam: dividends at 5%, a sale of securities at 0.1% of the price, other sales of capital at 20% of the gain.

Decree 253/2026/NĐ-CP defines securities for the 0.1% rate by reference to the law on securities; no text read for this article says whether shares listed abroad take 0.1% or 20%. The decree credits tax paid abroad where Vietnam has signed a double taxation agreement with the country concerned.

How Vietnamese tax residence is decided is covered in a separate article.

What this article has not established

No text read for this article says in terms that a resident individual may, or may not, open an account with a foreign broker or send money to one; the conclusion that no route exists is an inference from the texts, supported by the State Bank’s draft-stage note, not an official statement.

It was not confirmed which change the “partly expired” label refers to, or whether a 2015 decree formally implements the 2025 Law; no transitional clause was found. The annual quota, the list of licensed institutions and funds and any decision fining an individual for a transfer to a foreign broker were not found.

Whether a cash account with a foreign broker is a foreign-currency account abroad, the tax rate on shares listed abroad and whether a Vietnam–US double taxation agreement is in force remain open. The 2020 amendment to Circular 105/2016 was not read, and the status of Decree 70/2014 was not checked.

Shares bought with money already abroad, foreign shares inherited or received as gifts, Vietnamese living abroad, criminal liability and Securities Law amendments after March 2025 were not researched.