Customers use a banking app. To promote digital economy, banks should find way to quickly bring ordinary users to become digital customers. (Photo: vneconomy.vn) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a serious effect tothe economy, but it has helped accelerate the race for banks to go digital.
With many people looking for new options to deal with their financial affairs,digitalisation of services and e-payments are becoming crucial.
Vu Tien Loc, chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) toldan online forum held in Hanoi on May 22 that there can be positives to takefrom the pandemic.
“COVID-19 has been a catalyst that helps Vietnam accelerate digitalisation ofthe economy, businesses, banks as well as e-commerce,” Loc said.
Statistics showed the country now has 70 credit institutions and intermediariesunit such as E-wallets providing payment services online and through cell phoneapps. The total value of digital financial transactions topped 7.3 quadrillion VNDand 300,000 transactions via mobilephone so far.
Although there has been progress building a legal corridor for digital paymentservices, there were still obstacles in place. These have deterred digitalpayments from expanding quickly and easily to customers who prefer convenience,he said.
Decision No 645/QD-TTg on the overall plan of the national e-commercedevelopment in 2021-25 period targets to have 55 percent of the country’spopulation shopping online and 50 percent of small-and-medium sized enterpriseshaving business activities on e-commerce floors by 2025. The targets requireddetermination from firms and banks in promoting digitalisation and non-cashpayment.
Pham Tien Dung,director of the Payment Department under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) saidthe current policies have lagged behind the technology development.
To promote digital economy, banks should find ways to bring ordinary users tobecome their digital customers. To support banks, the SBV recently drafted aregulation on opening accounts by the electronic system, Know your customers(eKYC). Banks must increase customer experience to make them satisfied withproducts and services.
The central bank was expected to submit a decree to replace the Decree No101/2012/ND-CP on non-cash payment in June. This would see Vietnam having adefinition for electronic money and correspondent banks for the first time.This is the basis for banks to develop comprehensive digital banking.
Dung said in recent years, many digital banks have developed strongly, helpingto improve operational efficiency. For example, a traditional bank processingcredit files for businesses takes about a week, the digital bank can disbursefor businesses in around two hours by digitising all the data, using publiccredit appraisal technology.
“The growth rate of mobile banking in our country was 200 percent, showing thatwe are growing very well. On average, there were 30-50 million transactionsthrough the payment system,” he added.
However, the SBV also said that the biggest barrier of digital bankingdevelopment is still habit and a push is needed to change people's mindsets.
He said banks need to build a smart and diverse ecosystem to develop digitalbanking. In digital banking and payments, it is impossible to mention the cooperationbetween banks and fintech. Currently, 81 percent of credit institutions choosethe co-operation model between banks and fintech for mutual development.
In addition, banks must also strengthen integration, connectivity ofinfrastructure and applications of the banking industry with other industriesand services to expand the digital ecosystem.
Sharing ideas, Huynh Ngoc Huy, chairman of LienVietPostBank said the Governmentshould quickly build a national database, especially personal identificationfor sustainable development of digital banks and e-payment system.
“When building digital banking, it is important to have cryptocurrencies and anational database of residents. If we can't connect to the national database ofthe population, we can't identify it. Therefore, the Government shouldimmediately implement this because this is the root of the problem, throughwhich we will apply a lot of things, including digital banking development,”Huy said./.
VNA
