CIMB Bank Vietnam Migrates Nearly One Million Cards in Under 7 Months with Episode Six’s Cloud-Native Platform
Southeast Asia banking leader completes large-scale migration across prepaid, debit, and credit to elevate customer experience and accelerate time to market
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – September 3, 2025 – Episode Six, a leading global technology provider of enterprise-grade card issuing and ledger infrastructure, today announced the successful migration of CIMB Bank Vietnam’s full card portfolio—covering nearly one million prepaid, debit, and credit cards—to its modern, cloud-native platform. This go-live marks a major milestone in CIMB’s digital journey, reinforcing and elevating its position as a leading bank in Vietnam, recognized for its digital-first approach and rapid innovation.
The new platform replaces CIMB Vietnam’s legacy card management system with a fully SaaS-based solution that is cloud-native and API-first. With Episode Six, CIMB Vietnam can now manage all card types through a single platform, securely integrated with its digital banking platform. This enables the bank to launch new products and respond to market needs with far greater speed and flexibility, while also reducing operational overhead. Completed in under seven months—a timeline that sharply contrasts with the 18+ months typical of legacy processor migrations—this rollout demonstrates what Tier 1 banks can achieve with modern infrastructure built for speed, agility, and scale.
“As a digital-first bank, CIMB Vietnam is committed to delivering innovative, secure, and scalable end-to-end digital financial services to our customers,” said Rachel Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, CTO/CDO, CIMB Bank Vietnam. “Episode Six has been one of our key strategic partners in this journey—bringing modern technology, speed, and flexibility to our card systems. With this successful migration, we’re well-positioned to expand our card offerings to tech-savvy partners, rapidly deliver tailored products that meet evolving consumer demands, and accelerate innovation—all while improving time-to-market for new offerings and ensuring robust security with full PCI-DSS compliance”.
The transition gives CIMB Vietnam access to automatic delivery of scheme mandates, product upgrades, and platform enhancements—ensuring compliance and continuous innovation, while reducing scheme dependency by enabling access to multiple networks, all without the burden of manual updates. Delivered as part of the SaaS model, the solution also includes built-in HSM services, ensuring security and compliance are seamlessly managed without added complexity.
“CIMB’s migration reflects a broader shift among banks in APAC—away from legacy infrastructure and toward more agile, cloud-native platforms,” said John Mitchell, CEO and Co-Founder of Episode Six. “Completing a project of this scale in under seven months demonstrates just how banks can modernize when equipped with the right infrastructure. We’re proud to be their partner in elevating the digital experience.”
This collaboration highlights growing demand across Asia Pacific for cloud-native infrastructure that can support complex card programs and deliver faster time to market. Increasingly, Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks are looking for ways to modernize payments infrastructure without overhauling their entire tech stack. For Episode Six, the CIMB Vietnam partnership showcases its ability to deliver scalable, highly configurable solutions that integrate seamlessly into clients’ ecosystems.