Vietnam and Greece have been upgraded in FTSE Russell’s semi-annual country classification review for its equities and fixed income indices. Changes will be effective 21 September 2026.
Vietnam will rise from a frontier to a secondary emerging market. The upgrade follows the removal of a prefunding requirement for foreign institutional investors, the introduction of a non-refunding model and the establishment of a formal process to handle failed trades.
An interim review will be conducted in March to ensure that access to global brokers has been sufficiently improved.
Nguyen Van Thang, Vietnam’s minister of finance, commented, “Over the past two years, the State Securities Commission has implemented a comprehensive reform program to align Vietnam’s securities market with the highest international standards. The official recognition and upgrade of Vietnam’s securities market is clear evidence of the country’s sound development path and its growing capacity to integrate deeply into the global financial system.”
Greece has also been bumped up, moving from an advanced emerging to a developed market. It was demoted from developed to emerging in 2013, during its government debt crisis.
Athens Exchange Group CEO Yianos Kontopoulos observed, “This development is also expected to significantly expand the pool of international investors eligible to invest in the Greek capital market, attracting substantial capital inflows from funds tracking Developed Market indices.”
Elsewhere, Nigeria has been put on the watch list for a potential reclassification from an unclassified to frontier market. It currently meets five of FTSE’s 24 criteria for the status.
Egypt is being monitored for a possible downgrade from a secondary emerging to frontier market, as its market no longer meets the minimum securities count required for the status, FTSE stated.
Slovakia will be added to the FTSE World Government Bond Index (WGBI) in June 2026, now meeting the requisite market size, credit rating and market accessibility standards.
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