Coronavirus, Industry 4.0 boost online banking

Beside natural social progression, the novel coronavirus has been seen as something that helps promote online banking, as consumer habits evolve and digital transaction becomes more popular than ever.
Transactions via robots at Nam A bank
Transactions via robots at Nam A bank

Mobile banking has seen a growth rate of 200% and 30 million daily users, said the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). There are also 70 credit unions nationwide, not to mention countless intermediaries that provide transaction and payment services online and via smart phones.

Plus, the country’s online transactions and mobile transactions have reached over VND7 quadrillion (about US$300 billion) and VND 300,000 billion (about US$12.9 billion) respectively.

Data also shows the total number of electronic transactions up 81.32% in volume and 145.32% in value in the first 3 months of 2020. More notably, interbank transaction values up 8.85% year-on-year in the first 20 days of April 2020, when social distancing policies were in place.

As a result, many commercial banks have rushed to invest in digital banking, even considering it an inevitable development. The banking sector is also tasked with promoting non-cash payments.

As of late, Vietcombank has just become the first domestic bank to connect directly to the national public service portal, with Single Sign On (SSO) login feature to enable fast processing for certain public transaction services.

Private banks also made big strides, with Nam A Bank being the first bank in Vietnam to implement robot assistants and video teller machines.

Many private banks have introduced new customer-centric services and utilities such as letting users apply for credit cards and bank accounts online with face recognition and biometric authentication.

According to the Director of the Payment Department under SBV, there would be a new decree on non-cash payments proposed to the Government, aim to introduce the concepts of electronic money and correspondent banking.

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