Digital payment is expected to increase in both quantity and quality when the digital ecosystem in Vietnam is synchronized. This is the message conveyed at the Payments Summit 2019: Building a Digital Payments Ecosystem - which was co-organized by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Vietnam Banks' Association (VNBA) and OpenWay - a global provider of top-ranked softwares for digital payments - on 16 October 2019 in Hanoi.
Attending the Summit were Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Secretary General of VNBA, Mr. Pham Tien Dzung, Director General of the SBV Payment Department, representative from the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS), and Mrs. Maria Vinogradova, Director of Strategy and Market Intelligence of OpenWay. This event gathered over 120 C-level participants from local tier-1 banks and start-ups, technological and business experts, key influencers and visionaries of the global payment industry, who met to discuss how to build a new digital payments ecosystem.
Mr. Nguyen Toan Thang, Secretary General of VNBA speaks at the Summit
The Payments Summit 2019 consisted of 4 separate sections: (i) The changing payment landscape; (ii) Technologies that empower digital transformation; (iii) Implementing the digital strategy; (iv) Overcoming challenges around digitizing Vietnamese payments. Focusing on how to build a digital ecosystem, the panel discussion sessions analyzed the successful digital payment service models from the experts’ perspectives from Europe; cloud computing in payments in light of Industry 4.0; application of technology to overcome infrastructure barriers to reach consumers in all regions...
Mr. Pham Tien Dzung, Director General of the SBV Payment Department presented at the Summit
At the event, Mr. Pham Tien Dzung, Director General of the SBV Payment Department confirmed that the non-cash payment ecosystem has generated great demand to cover payment needs in all areas of life. “At present, we are no longer bothered by power-bill collectors, who used to knock on our doors while we were having dinner with our family. In addition to utility bills, we can also pay for various other services via banking apps on smartphones, like internet charges, cable TV subscription, tuition fees, shoppings, and many others,” said Mr. Dzung.
In 2017, as much as 87.57 percents of the total power revenue was collected via banks or e-wallet apps. Over the past years, banking services have become more and more popular. The number of individual banking accounts has increased to 83.9 million (as of August 2019) from 69 million in 2017 and 60.2 million in 2015, while the proportion of adults holding a bank account rose to 63.7 percents in 2018, from 52 percents in 2015.
In public services, digital payment is also growing stronger with the participation of over 50 banks. Thereby, 95 percents of the total customs revenue is now collected by bank transfers, while 99 percents of businesses have registered to pay taxes online. To date, there are 32 units licensed by the SBV, 28 of which provide payment portal services and 29 of which provide e-wallet services. “Money transfers via mobile banking have already surpassed ATM transactions,” a representative of the SBV emphasized.
In fact, the number of internet and mobile banking transactions was 204 million and 170 million respectively in the second quarter of this year, rising by 60.6 percents and 109.5 percents over the same period last year, and the value of transactions also increased remarkably. “Mobile payment is a trend promoting new technologies like QR code, near field communication (NFC), tokenization, and biometric authentication,” added Mr. Dzung.
At the Summit, the participants also gained insights on topics relevant to building a digital payment ecosystem, such as Digital payments services (tokenization, QR-code payments, NFC payments, etc.); cloud-based payments processing; financial inclusion and much more.
VA