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Vu Hoa
Banks rush for digital transformation
T
he trend of integrating modern technologies in the banking industry has been indispensable to meet customers’ requirements for convenience in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, especially in the context of the re-outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to statistics, Vietnam currently has 88.5 million bank accounts. Only 63.7 percent of Vietnamese adults have a bank account. Meanwhile, the rate of using smartphones in Vietnam is very high. In the past year, the race to launch digital banking and upgrade apps to super apps is getting hotter. Many banks said that 2020 is the year of digital transformation, focusing on investment in technology. Since the beginning of the year, a series of banks have launched digital banking experience services to customers such as VPBank, BIDV, Vietcombank, HDBank and Vietinbank.
VPBank is the first bank in Vietnam to deploy e-KYC. The bank uses four technologies at the same time for opening online accounts including artificial intelligence (AI); OCR technology separating and comparing information on identity cards; biometrics technology to compare whether a photo is being taken with an identity card or not; and e-signature. Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang, head of BIDV Digital Banking Center, said that digital banking is one of the three pillars of BIDV's development strategy to 2025 and vision to 2030. Accordingly, BIDV will focus on digitizing distribution channels, transaction systems, customer interaction to move towards comprehensive digitalisation. Many other banks have been racing to develop digital banking. In fact, each bank has a different orientation to digital banking, depending on its customers. If Timo Digital Bank under VPBank is at the forefront of the digital
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banking revolution with the policy of fewer branches and transaction offices, TPBank has a strategy of density coverage with automatic ATMs (LiveBank). Maritime Bank (MSB) selected Mambu and its cloud-based banking platform to sit at the heart of its digital transformation project. Vietcombank recently launched its new digital bank service - VCB Digibank, integrating its online trading platforms. The service has been developed based on a combination of internet and mobile banking platforms to provide a unified experience for customers. Nam A Bank launched Vietnam’s first banking robot. Robot OPBA, as it is called in the bank, stands at the bank counters to welcome customers. In June, VietinBank piloted “Smart Digital Branch”, a disruption in applying biometric technology to the bank’s operations.
