Payment cards and insurance premiums are the two biggest non-interest income sources of banks.
At Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), in Q2/2019, revenue from services increased sharply compared to the same period of 2018 to 520 billion dong, corresponding to an increase of 32 percent, thereby contributing to the profit of the period of 1.915 trillion dong, as well as the first six months of 2019 profit of 3.622 trillion dong.
In order to further promote card services, as well as prepare the strategy for the period 2020-2024, ACB’s leaders said that every year, ACB invested $30 million to $35 million in technology to enhance customer experience. ACB currently focuses on retail and small and medium enterprises. With a group of high-income individual customers, ACB aims to increase deposit mobilisation and income from insurance and credit card services.
Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) has also strongly developed credit card segment recently. This segment contributed positively to the first half of 2019 business results when bringing 1.82 trillion dong to VIB, up 58 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
Tran Thu Huong, Head of VIB Retail Banking, said that with the desire to contribute to the “cashless” process proposed by the government, VIB continuously diversified products and services, promoted investment in technology to enhance customer experience, as well as increase customer attraction.
On August 8, VIB launched Smart Card technology solutions to help customers shorten waiting time, enhance safety and join hands to protect the environment. That was an integrated solution of three technologies: Virtual Card, Contactless, Green PIN. All three technologies were integrated in MyVIB Mobile Banking application, applicable to all existing and new VIB credit cards.
Sharing with the Vietnam Investment Review, Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Nam A Bank) leader said that, in the last six months, card activities had been boosted with a growth rate of nearly 20 percent and reached 60,000 credit cards.
In the second half of 2019, Nam A Bank would strengthen digitising ecosystems of products and services, especially with card segment, by applying artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to enhance the customer experience, gradually change the user’s perspective on banking transactions in the Industry 4.0.
Talking to reporters, a deputy general director of SaiGon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) said that the card segment was a significant contribution to the bank’s revenue over the past time. In the first seven months of 2019, Sacombank gained 1.938 trillion dong of pre-tax profit, of which card profit contributed 496 billion dong, up 28 percent over the same period in 2018. The number of card users increased by 10 percent, reaching nearly 5 million customers with 13 percent increase in card payment revenue.
In the coming time, Sacombank would continue to prioritise the increase in revenue from services, promote the guarantee, international payment, insurance, card, electronic banking, etc., and at the same time enhance the promotion of cashless payment and deploy digital banking services.
According to Bui Quang Tin, HCM City Banking University, said that the State Bank of Vietnam’s restricted credit in a number of risk areas such as real estate, securities, etc., which would affect the bank’s profit growth.
Besides, the regulation of reducing the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans from the beginning of 2019 according to the provisions of Circular 19/2017/TT-NHNN and applying Basel II from the beginning of 2020 also made the revenue of banks declined.
