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Politics & Risk

Briefing

1. Need to Know2. Risks & Constraints3. Money Matters4. Local Knowledge5. Political Weather6. ItinerariesQuestions
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Workers welding metal structures in an industrial workshop

Section 4 of 6

Local Knowledge: Crocs and Mastercard

Two companies, followed across the border.

Next: Political Weather
TradeIndustries

Crocs does a different job in each country

Singapore is where Crocs sells. Vietnam is where its shoes are made. US tariffs follow where goods are made.

A tree-lined shopping street in Singapore

Singapore

18Crocs stores

Plus its Asia office, here since 2004.

Tariff risk: low. Singapore faces the same 12.5% US tariff, but Crocs makes nothing here, so there is little for it to hit.

Shoe lasts, soles and leather uppers on a workbench

Vietnam

45%of Crocs Brand shoes are made here

In outside factories. Crocs owns none.

Tariff risk: high. Shoes made here pay the US tariff on Vietnamese goods: 12.5% today, down from 20% in 2025.

TradeIndustries

HEYDUDE left China for Vietnam, and the tariff followed

Moving factories out of China didn't escape US tariffs. By 2025 HEYDUDE made 44% of its shoes in Vietnam, and that July Vietnam got a 20% tariff of its own.

Where HEYDUDE shoes are made, share of production
0%50%100%2023202420255%20%44%Vietnam83%58%China

Crocs has not published HEYDUDE’s 2025 China share, only that China is no longer the majority.

−13.3%HEYDUDE sales

In 2025, while the Crocs Brand grew 1.5%. Crocs says tariffs hit HEYDUDE disproportionately.

1.7ptsof margin lost to tariffs

Crocs’ operating-margin guidance for the third quarter of 2025.

GovernmentIndustries

Mastercard: licensed innovator, and partner to the state

Singapore is where Mastercard runs Asia and tries new things first. In Vietnam it grows alongside the national payment network.

A hand tapping a smartphone on a card payment terminal

Singapore

HQfor Asia Pacific

And a test bed: in March 2026 an AI agent booked and paid for a ride to Changi here.

Regulatory risk: low. Strict but stable rules. In 2025 the regulator fined nine institutions S$27.5 million for anti-money-laundering failures.

A metro train on an elevated track in Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam

9banks issue its joint card with NAPAS

NAPAS is Vietnam’s national payment network. Mastercard has had an office here since 2008 and brings tap-to-pay to Ho Chi Minh City’s Metro Line 1.

Regulatory risk: high. Payment and data rules change one decree at a time, so it works with the state, not around it.

GovernmentFDI

For Mastercard, one steady rulebook and one that keeps moving

Singapore's payments law arrived in one piece. Vietnam's rules keep arriving one decree at a time.

Singapore

1law, since 2020

  1. January 2020: Payment Services Act

    Three licence classes, seven payment services, one regulator

Vietnam

4rule moves since 2022

  1. October 2022: Decree 53

    Store specified data in Vietnam; open a local office

  2. July 2024: Decree 52

    First legal definition of e-money; banks get 24 months to comply

  3. July 2024: Decision 2345

    Biometrics for transfers above 10 million dong

  4. A 49% foreign cap on e-payment firms

    Proposed in a draft decree, then dropped after pushback

Why Mastercard stays: Vietnam’s market is booming

28×Vietnam's GDP

The value of cashless payments in 2025.

92%a year

Growth in contactless payments, 2022 to 2024.

FDITrade

What changed for both companies

Crocs

The sourcing country is now a political choice. Build the diversification before you need it.

Every alternative country carries a similar tariff, and the EU deal is phasing footwear tariffs to zero.
Hands holding a Vietnamese dong banknote in front of Ha Long Bay

Mastercard

In Singapore you follow the rules. In Vietnam you also need the regulators on your side.

Rules change by decree and the state runs key payment systems, so staying close to regulators is how you see changes coming and help shape them.