Banking sector can be pioneer in digital transformation: PM
Banking sector can be pioneer in digital transformation: PM
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the banking sector had all the factors to be pioneering and, in fact, was at the forefront of the digital transformation process.
Digital transformation was an inevitable trend, and an urgent requirement, noted the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister, who is also Chairman of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, attended and delivered a keynote speech at the Conference on Digital Transformation in the Banking Sector organised by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in Ha Noi on Thursday.
Speaking at the conference, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said that in the Prime Minister's Decision No 749/QD-TTg approving the programme on national digital transformation by 2025, the finance - banking sector was identified as one of eight sectors that needed to prioritise digital transformation.
The SBV has established a steering committee for the digital transformation of the banking sector and chose May 11 as the day of digital transformation of the sector.
The plan puts people and customers at the centre, with very specific goals, such as 50 per cent of banking operations to be digitised by 2025, 70 per cent of customer transactions conducted on digital channels, and 50 per cent of retail loans and consumer loans for individual customers are digitised and automated.
The SBV's Payment Department said banking services on digital platforms in Viet Nam were developing, especially e-payment services with digitalisation and rapid growth.
Non-cash payment transactions increased by 77.2 per cent in volume and 29.8 per cent in value in the first six months of this year.
Nearly 70 per cent of Vietnamese adults have bank accounts; 5.5 million accounts and approximately 8.9 million bank cards have been opened electronically; 1.77 million Mobile Money accounts have been opened, of which more than 67 per cent are in rural, remote and isolated areas.
Many leading Vietnamese banks in digital transformation have now achieved 90 per cent of customer transactions on digital channels, far ahead of the target set in the programme on national digital transformation at 70 per cent by 2025.
Besides the positive results, the Prime Minister stated that the process of national digital transformation and bank digital transformation still faced many difficulties and challenges.
Mechanisms and policies still had many shortcomings, especially in terms of identification and electronic authentication; inadequate information technology infrastructure, while connection and exploitation of population data, insurance and tax was still narrow in scope, he said.
The participation and coordination of financial technology enterprises was still limited; and high-tech crimes involved increasingly sophisticated forms, added the Prime Minister.
Resources, especially highly qualified human resources for digital transformation, were still lacking, including in information technology, he said.
In the future, the situation around the world and in the region would continue to develop unpredictably, with far-reaching impacts on countries, said the Prime Minister.
Noting that it was necessary to identify difficulties and challenges rather than opportunities and advantages, the Prime Minister emphasised a number of requirements such as promoting a change in thinking, methodology and working methods of the banking sector in a modern direction; boosting the development of e-commerce, digital society, and digital economy; promoting integration, connection and sharing of national databases on population and specialised databases to gradually build a digital citizen ecosystem.
The Prime Minister requested the State Bank of Vietnam and the banking sector to make great efforts and more effective actions in digital transformation; carefully assess the situation, results, causes, limitations, inadequacies, and lessons learned from domestic and international experiences; analyse and forecast the upcoming situation, determine short-term, medium-term and long-term goals; and develop an digital transformation programme for the whole sector with appropriate and specific roadmaps, solutions and resources.
