The 4.0 Industrial Revolution is making a comprehensive change to the way of providing product and services of industries in general and the finance and banking sector in particular.
The need to transform to a digital-based business model, accordingly, is an inevitable need, helping banks create a competitive advantage, proactively adapt and develop sustainably.
Particularly, in the context when the Covid-19 epidemic is significantly changing the perception and habits of many people in digital transactions, the development of digital banking is now more urgent than ever.
Phan Duc Tu, Chair of the Board of directors (BOD) of Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) once said that digital transformation is no longer a concept, but a concrete action which determines the survival of any organisation, including banks, etc. Digital transformation requires the will, determination and courage of all people to discard the old habits and create new ones.
And the race for digital transformation in Vietnamese banks is becoming fiercer than ever when members have continuously introduced new digital naming products, creating big transformations.
After the booming years in 2017 2019, with the participation of most banks, the transformation process was accelerated across segments or as a whole. Recently, the race to increase utility and benefits for customers and the market has continued to be heated up.
In mid-July, Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) officially launched its digital banking service VCB Digibank. This service is built on the consolidation of separate transaction platforms on Internet Banking and Mobile Banking, providing seamless and unified experiences for customers on electronic media means such as computers (PC/ Laptop) and mobile devices (phone/ tablet).
According to Vietcombank, when using VCB Digibank, customers will experience digital banking service in a completely new way with the identical username and password. Accordingly, there will be only one username and one password for VCB Digibank service.
It is known that VCB Digibank inherits the security methods applied to customers on previous services including log in security, transaction security and especially Smart OTP.
In addition, VCB Digibank is also added a new login authentication technology: Push Authentication. With this technology, when a customer logs in on a web browser, the system will automatically send a notice to the mobile application waiting for the customer to confirm before allowing successful login.
In mid-August, Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) also held a launching a campaign with theme “BIDV Digi Up Change to lead”. BIDV’s leader said that the bank has the advantage of young customers with more than 50 percent of individual customers aged 35 and below.
Currently, BIDV has connected with most fintech companies, nearly 1,00 service providers to bring to the market more than 1,600 payment services for customers, etc.
With great advantages in terms of customers and the ability to apply information technology, BIDV aims to have 80 percent of customers accessing and using BIDV’s digital channels.
Recently, a private joint stock bank Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) also announced the successful application of electronic Know-your-Client (eKYC).
Accordingly, customers only need to enter their phone number, take a double-side identity card to verify identity documents, then verify their identity online, and finally complete the account registration by entering email, account name and setting up a password for the account. The account is opened and ready to be used after just a few minutes with TPBank application.
TPBank’s leader said that to serve the operation of eKYC, TPBank application has been integrated with leading technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Optical Character Recognition Technology (OCR), Face Recognition and Liveness Check, and Fraud detection.
Particularly, TPBank has successfully applied Video Call technology to ensure the verifying information through the application is as effective as face-to-face meetings.
As mentioned in the above, in the booming years of 2017 2019, the updated data from the SBV’s Payment Department at some point showed that the growth rate of banking transactions via digital platforms has continuously increased, particularly the transactions via phone at one point even surpassed the leading regional market Singapore.
In the first four months of 2020, the SBV’s statistics also showed that payment via cards, the Internet and mobile phones increased very strongly. Payment via the Internet rose up by 3.2 percent in quantity and 45.7 percent in value, payment via mobile phones grew by 189 percent in quantity and over 166 percent in value compared to the same period of 2019.
It can be seen that digital banking and digital transformation are the inevitable trends that all banks have to pursue if they do not want to be left behind. The digital transformation race, therefore, is forecasted to continue to be more exciting in the near future.
