Digital banking users soaring

	Banks in the digital transformation race
	Cashless society gets closer as Vietnam digital banking gathers pace
	Vietnam’s digital banking adoption catches up with developed markets

The "livebank" transaction points help TPBank's physical costs drop sharply.

New customers growing fast

VPBank said that its customers reached 21 million, equivalent to a fifth of Vietnam's population. The number of high- and middle-income customers grew by more than 50% compared to the end of 2021, showing the effectiveness of the exploitation of potential segments that VPBank is pursuing.

Meanwhile, the number of customers registering to use VPBank NEO digital bank surged by 63% year-on-year, and transactions via digital platforms also hit a record of nearly 80%.

Through the digitization of the entire secured loan process for loan products for buying houses, cars and consumer loan products, from information processing, and valuation to disbursement, VP Bank’s disbursement rate for online mortgage lending segment reached 85%.

At TPBank, by the end of June 2022, the bank has added nearly 1.5 million new customers, up 25% year-on-year to more than six million customers.

According to Mr. Nguyen Hung, TPBank's General Director, TPBank has invested trillions of dong each year in technology and digital banking. Despite determining that this is an expensive project, the bank has always continuously invested in creativity, innovation and technology updates, thereby launching breakthrough products based on customer understanding and personalization while enhancing security and safety for the goal of providing the most convenient experience for customers. TPBank is serving nearly 100% of the market share of e-wallet users in Vietnam, and is the banking unit that connects the most e-wallets in the whole industry.

SSI Research also points out that, as of June 2022, Vietcombank has about 8 million digital banking customers, up 21% from 6.6 million customers at the beginning of 2022 and equivalent to about 36% of total individual customers of VCB. With strong investment in digitization, Vietcombank aims to have 10 million digital banking users by the end of 2022.

Similarly, by the end of the second quarter of 2022, ACB had 5 million customers, an increase of 15% compared to the beginning of the year, mainly technology-based customers.

According to VCBS’s report, the rate of Vietnamese people using bank accounts is still lower than that of regional countries. With the trend of digitization and the introduction of Electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) technology that helps open accounts without a bank branch, this rate will increase. Banks that focus on developing customer experience at the current stage can greatly benefit from this trend by increasing the number of customers using the service.

Optimize operational efficiency

Strong investment in technology not only helps banks attract more new customers, but also optimizes operational costs and efficiency. VCBS's report shows that ACB's operating costs have decreased significantly since the end of 2021, from 42% to 33% by the end of the second quarter of 2022. VCBS believes that the strengthening of technology in operations will help control costs better in 2022, helping the bank to grow profits.

For TPBank, VCBS’s report said that in the 2015 – 2021 period, the rate of CASA (Current Account Savings Account) of this bank rose 4 times, from nearly VND7,500 billion to nearly VND31 trillion. This result is thanks to the focus on digital transformation and pioneering in the design of 0 dong transaction products, helping TPBank attract mainly young individual customers who love technology experiences and save transaction costs.

According to the bank's leadership, TPBank is the first bank that can perform two million transactions per minute, linking with many banks and partners on an online transaction platform, meeting the transaction needs of young people, especially on shopping promotion days like Black Friday, etc.

In addition, the addition of "livebank" transaction points helps TPBank reduce physical costs (rent for transaction locations) and personnel costs to perform transactions such as withdrawing, depositing, transferring money over the counter, etc. That reduces operating costs for the bank.

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Experts also said that the strong development of digital applications will help banks attract more capital and reduce capital costs in the long term. Along with that, operating costs will also reduce thanks to increased working efficiency.