Bryan Carroll to step down as CEO of Vietnamese digital bank TNEX

Bryan Carroll, CEO and co-founder of the Vietnamese digital bank TNEX, announced that he is stepping down from his role at the end of this month.

In a post on LinkedIn, Carroll said he has made “the very difficult decision” to step down as CEO and to move to the company’s board. He did not provide the reason for his decision. TNEX has not announced a replacement.

Carroll co-founded TNEX in 2019 as the digital banking arm of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank. The other co-founders are David Jimenez Maireles, and Nga Pham Thi Nguyet.

During his tenure, Carroll spearheaded the digital bank’s growth, which now has over 1.6 million users through partnerships with Mambu, Amazon Web Services (AWS), TopeBox, TechX, and iConnect.

“TNEX was never a job to me but a consuming passion to improve the everyday lives of the unbanked in Vietnam,” Carroll said. “Being part of the journey has made me feel very emotional at times and a little proud.”

Prior to TNEX, Carroll was chief digital officer at Maritime Bank Vietnam. He also co-founded adtech firm Ad Prov and was a board advisor at US-based social media and messenger retail banking platform LikeBank.

TNEX is one of Vietnam’s first digital-only banks for retail consumers and micro-merchants. Since its launch, TNEX has recorded impressive growth, with 500,000 retail and 15,000 SME mobile banking customer sign-ups just in 2022.

Other players in the space include Timo, which was launched in 2015 and has since attracted over 200,000 customers. Similarly, MoMo, a mobile wallet app, has grown to become one of the most widely used payment apps in Vietnam.