When National Australia Bank (NAB) began exploring Southeast Asia nearly a decade ago, Vietnam stood out for its people and potential.
The decision has since become one of the bank’s most defining milestones. Under the leadership of Patrick Wright, Group Executive for Technology and Enterprise Operations, the NAB Innovation Centre Vietnam has grown into a team of more than 2,200 engineers, designers, and data specialists in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Beyond supporting NAB’s digital operations, the center is reshaping how one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia approaches innovation in the modern age.
As Wright shared on the Vietnam Innovators podcast, the center’s mission goes far beyond coding and operations. It’s about shaping the future of banking through creativity, collaboration, and trust.
A Global Bank With Local Heart
Patrick Wright is an unusual figure in global banking. An American who holds Australian citizenship and a deep personal connection to Vietnam as his wife is Vietnamese, Wright blends multinational experience with an intuitive grasp of the country’s energy. “I love Vietnam,” he said. “It’s a vibrant, bustling economy, and it’s amazing to see how much it’s changed. The people here are creative, persistent, and full of energy.”
When NAB sought to establish its first major innovation hub outside Australia, Wright led the search across Southeast Asia. The choice ultimately came down to one simple conviction: Vietnam had both the capability and the mindset to build something special.
“We wanted somewhere in Southeast Asia that was time-zone friendly to Australia,” Wright recalled. “But more importantly, I believed in the people and the culture here.”
The first phase began modestly, a few hundred engineers focused on supporting NAB’s technology needs. Then came a turning point in late 2021, when, after the pandemic, the team’s results convinced NAB’s leadership in Australia to scale rapidly. From an initial 200 people, NAB Vietnam has grown to more than 2,000 today. It’s a scale driven by trust from colleagues in Australia who spent time on the ground, saw the quality firsthand, and believed in what Vietnam could deliver.
A Culture That Feels More Like A Startup
Despite being part of a 41,000-employee global bank, NAB Vietnam feels closer to a technology startup than a traditional financial institution. The average age of employees is under 30, and Wright describes the atmosphere as “young, fun, and high energy.”
“The employee value proposition here is different from what you’d expect from a bank,” he said. “It feels more like a tech company. In terms of staff engagement, we're in the top decile of all firms globally.”
That vibrant culture is built on a mix of autonomy and accountability. Over the years, NAB Vietnam has evolved from executing tasks sent from Australia to leading projects and taking ownership of entire product capabilities. “As we continue to mature, we're going to continue to give the teams here accountability, responsibility and autonomy for important functions. So it's turning from a center that used to be receiving orders from Australia to one that's now got accountability for capabilities and they're providing the services back autonomously to Australia.”
Innovation, he emphasized, doesn’t always mean big flashy ideas. In banking, it often starts small. In what Wright calls the “micro sense.”
“It’s about empowering developers to listen to customer complaints and say, ‘I know how to fix that,’” Wright said. “That’s innovation, the small things that make the customer experience delightful.”
Where Technology Meets Purpose
NAB has made a bold commitment to becoming a fully digital-first institution. “We’re a public cloud-only bank,” Wright shared. “Among the top 400 banks globally, we’re likely number one. Nearly 90 percent of what we run is in Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and now Google Cloud.”
That level of digital transformation demands not just technology, but trust. “People entrust us with their money and their data,” Wright said. “So while we’re excited about AI, we’re equally serious about keeping information secure.”
The discussion naturally turned to AI, the most transformative force reshaping industries worldwide. Wright sees it as both an opportunity and a challenge. “This is a moment in human history that we’ll all look back on,” he said. “AI won’t just change banking, it’ll change how we think, how we work, and how fast we move.”
He distinguishes between the hype and the reality of AI: “Generative AI isn’t going to change mankind just because you can ask ChatGPT a clever question. What will change the world is when AI helps people move 2x, 5x, even 10x faster. That’s transformative.”
For NAB, Vietnam sits “right at the epicenter” of that transformation. With its young, tech-savvy population and growing investment in AI research and infrastructure, Vietnam is uniquely positioned to become a key player in NAB’s global AI ambitions. “The technology is maturing faster than we can imagine,” Wright said. “I think we’ll see more change in the next five years than we did in the last fifty.”
Leadership In The Age Of Acceleration
For Patrick Wright, leadership begins with momentum. One of NAB’s core values, Move with Speed, captures how he approaches both technology and people: stay adaptive, act with purpose, and never lose pace with change. “If winning were easy, everyone would do it,” he often says, a reminder that progress is built on persistence as much as strategy.
Wright describes leadership as a constant push to evolve. He recalls a lecture from an Oxford professor who mapped every major human invention across 20,000 years. The last half-century appeared as a blur of black ink, representing the sheer velocity of innovation. That image stayed with him. “In the past forty years, we’ve invented more than in the previous twenty thousand. The acceleration hasn’t slowed. If we stop moving, we fall behind.”
This philosophy shapes how NAB transforms itself and how Vietnam fits within that vision. Wright believes this is the most extraordinary period in human history to work in technology. The pace of change is daunting, yet exhilarating. At NAB Vietnam, it translates into a culture where teams are encouraged to think fast, act decisively, and take ownership of outcomes. Leadership, for Wright, is about creating the conditions for others to move with confidence and speed.
Building A Place For Growth
But technology isn’t the only thing that’s growing. NAB Vietnam itself continues to expand its footprint, both physically and on purpose. Its offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are more than workspaces; they’re collaborative ecosystems where Vietnamese and international engineers, designers, and data specialists co-create solutions for NAB’s customers in Australia.
The workforce is global by nature. Many employees are Vietnamese who have studied or worked abroad, some even hold dual citizenship and continue to bank with NAB. “There’s this deep connection,” Wright said. “People want to be part of building something meaningful here.”
For him, that connection is personal. “I hope my children spend time here as they grow,” he said with a smile. “Vietnam is special and it’s shaping the future.”
As NAB Vietnam continues to expand, the message from Wright is clear: Vietnam is no longer just a destination for cost-effective talent. It’s a strategic engine for innovation, creativity, and speed.
In an era defined by AI, automation, and global collaboration, NAB Vietnam embodies the modern face of banking, a place of transactions and transformation. It’s where youthful energy meets global expertise, and where those who “move with speed” are helping redefine what a 45 year-old bank can be.
For Vietnam’s rising generation of technologists, that future might just start in a glass tower overlooking the Saigon River, where the pulse of a global bank beats in perfect sync with the rhythm of a fast-changing nation.