The event was organized with the aim of connecting leading leaders and experts in the banking and finance industry, providing in-depth insights into the latest technologies to contribute to finding breakthrough strategies to build a safe and sustainable digital future for the banking industry.

Strong digitalization of financial products and services

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Banks Association, affirmed that the banking industry has been witnessing a strong transformation, from the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, to the development of digital financial products and services. These changes not only help improve operational efficiency but also create many new opportunities for banks in serving customers and enhancing user experience.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, cashless payment activities and digital banking transformation continue to achieve positive results, important payment systems operate smoothly and safely. More than 87% of adults have payment accounts at banks; and many banks have more than 95% of transactions processed on digital channels.

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman and General Secretary of Vietnam Banks Association delivered the opening speech at the Workshop.

“Security and safety in payment activities and information systems applied to banking operations, as well as high-tech crime prevention activities in the banking sector continue to be enhanced. To date, more than 37 million customers have successfully registered their biometric information. This is considered a positive step forward in helping to reduce risks and protect users from fraud,” Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung emphasized.

In particular, in order to provide banking products and services with high technology content and highly personalized services to enhance customer experience, data collection, exploitation and processing are always considered important. The entire banking industry has focused on cleaning up all 51 million customer data at the Vietnam National Credit Information Center and credit institutions, ensuring that 100% of customer data is verified with the national population database.

Along with that, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data analytics have brought the ability to analyze data in detail and quickly, helping to create valuable information and support banks and businesses to make the most appropriate business decisions. In particular, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) has become a prominent trend for businesses globally in general and the banking sector in particular. 85% of banks have established an AI application strategy in building new products and services and more than 59% of employees are using AI in their daily operations.

However, in addition to opportunities, the banking industry also faces many challenges. For example, according to the representative of the Vietnam Banking Association, the benefits and trends of applying AI in the banking industry are clear, but implementing AI in banking is not easy. Data security and privacy are always top concerns.

Legal corridor paves the way for the “digital future”

Speaking at the plenary session of the event, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung said that, following the success of last year, the Smart Banking Conference and Exhibition series this year returned with a topic that the banking industry is very interested in: "Shaping the digital future for the banking industry: Safe and sustainable operating strategy".

According to the Deputy Governor, in terms of legal space for digital transformation, the banking industry is currently very open and has achieved results that no other industry has achieved. From customers being able to open accounts using eKYC from 2021, to only being allowed to open accounts with chip-embedded citizen identification cards from October 1, 2024, implementing guarantees as well as completely online lending, etc. "The legal corridor of the banking industry has been paving the way for the application of technology," Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung affirmed.

Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung speaks.

Regarding the implementation of Decision 2345/QD-NHNN and Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN, after the new regulations took effect, the number of fraud cases against individual customers has decreased significantly.

“However, there is no complete and perfect solution. Decision 2345 and Circular 17 have tightened the opening of personal accounts for individual customers. However, there is currently a situation of circumventing regulations by opening corporate accounts and bypassing biometric authentication for fraudulent purposes. Therefore, in the coming time, the banking industry will pay more attention to the opening of corporate accounts to ensure the authentication of the legal representative of the enterprise. When conducting corporate transactions, if the transaction is large, a signature is required to identify the responsible person, ensuring that if a problem occurs, the signer can be traced,” Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung affirmed.

The representative of the State Bank of Vietnam also requested coordination with other ministries and agencies, because businesses are licensed by competent authorities. If the situation of not being able to identify the business owner is left, not only in the banking industry but also in all areas, fraud will continue to occur.

The Deputy Governor also expressed hope that at this event, technology companies will present practical solutions to help the banking industry operate safely and sustainably.