Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam is witnessing a wave of digitalisation in theretail banking industry, driven by industry 4.0 technologies.

At the VietnamRetail Banking 2017 Forum on December 6, Nguyen Toan Thang, General Secretaryof the Vietnam Banks Association, said banks are making positive moves towardsnew technologies.

Atransition from traditional banking to digital banking was taking place alongwith a transformation in the business model to enhance customer experience withnew products and solutions developed from the application of new technologiessuch as big data and artificial intelligence.

Industry4.0 would create impetus for the development of retail banking,especially in the application of technologies to meet demand oftechnology-savvy customers, he said.

Financialexpert Can Van Luc said Vietnam’s retail banking had significant potential fordevelopment in Industry 4.0, given the high ratio of internet coverage andrapid e-commerce development.

Hecited statistics that 54 percent of population used theinternet and 62 percent of internet users did online shopping. Inaddition, payments through QR code were also booming with an increase of120 percent in the January-September period. From 2018, 50,000 pointswould accept QR code payment compared with the current 5,000 points.

Lucforecast that revenue from retail banking would be accountedfrom 44 percent of banks’ revenue.

However,Luc said Vietnam should pay attention to developing human resources, improvingthe digital infrastructure system and completing legal framework for thedevelopment of digital banking.

Legal frameworkwas of significant importance, Luc said. For example, Vietnam was slow inissuing regulations for managing cryptocurrencies, especially the bitcoin,although they were booming globally

“Industry4.0 is coming rapidly and it will not wait for anyone. Early boarding will leadto competitiveness,” Luc said.

Accordingto Nghiem Thanh Son, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s PaymentDepartment, as of the end of September, 97 credit institutions were providingpayment services in Vietnam, including ATM, POS, internet and mobile banking.

Therewere 127 million banking cards with 66.6 million individual accounts.

The fintech ecosystemwas also developing in the country, Son said, adding that the number ofe-wallet users had increased by 1.5 times compared with 2016 to reach 9.6million.

Sonsaid Vietnam had potential to develop new payment channels, especially internetand mobile banking, with more than 60 percent of the population under35 and adaptive to new technologies.

Sonsaid the central bank would review legal framework and raise regulations aboutnew payment methods, such as e-wallet and cryptocurrencies, next year.

Thecentral bank would also consider the issuance of standards for cards, QR codepayment, as well as conditions for licensing payment services for non-bankinstitutions.-VNA