Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has set three major digital transformation targets for the banking sector, including creating the most favourable conditions for people, businesses and agencies to access banking services.

At an event on digital transformation in the banking industry held by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in Hanoi on May 8, the PM said digital transformation should contribute to reducing time and compliance cost for people, businesses and agencies and the banking system itself, while helping control risks and prevent corruption.

The Government leader requested the banking sector to focus on strengthening the perfection of institutions and mechanisms, creating a full legal corridor for the development, expansion and diversification of modern banking services meeting international standards, and promoting the development of the digital banking ecosystem, meeting the growing requirements of the economy.

Alongside, it is necessary to boost electronic payment infrastructure, diversifying banking products and services, creating an important foundation for the development of the digital banking ecosystem and digital economy, while speeding up digital transformation to support banking inspection and supervision, thus enhancing publicity, transparency, and preventing corruption and money laundering.

At the same time, the PM also underlined the need to develop digital human resources in the banking industry, especially high-quality human resources to meet the development needs of the industry and international cooperation activities, along with the enhancement of security and safety in payment, protection of personal data and application of new security standards, ensuring fast, safe, convenient payment at reasonable cost.

PM Chinh emphasised that the banking sector should effectively implement tasks and solutions stated in the national digital transformation strategy, the strategy for banking sector’s development, the digital transformation plan in the banking industry, and Directive 18 on strengthening data connections and sharing serving the development of e-commerce, preventing tax loss and ensuring monetary security.

According to the SBV, after three years of implementing the digital transformation plan for the banking sector until 2025 with a vision to 2030, the sector has reaped fruitful results.

To date, more than 87% of adults have payment accounts at banks and many banks have over 95% of transactions processed on digital channels. The average growth in the number of payment transactions via mobile devices and QR code from 2017 to 2023 reached over 100% per year.

Banking technology infrastructure has been upgraded and developed, ensuring continuous, smooth and safe operations. New digital technologies have also been strongly applied to develop new products and services, meeting the increasing needs of people and businesses. Vietnam has completed cross-border payment connections via QR codes with Thailand, Cambodia, and is connecting with Laos, and expectedly with countries inside and outside the ASEAN region, the SBV said.

The banking sector has closely coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security in crime prevention and control and in using residential data to serve customer information data cleaning, authenticating customers' identification, supporting lending activities.

To date, 58 credit institutions have been implementing applications to authenticate customers with chip-embedded ID cards via devices at the counter, and 14 credit institutions are piloting the use of the identification and authentication app (VNeID) in some of their services.

꧃ Positive results have also been seen in cashless payment activities. In the first 4 months of 2024, cashless payment transactions increased 56.57% in number and 31.35% in value, the SBV reported./.