The event was jointly organised by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, the Asia Foundation, Mastercard and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The seminar also shared the result of the project “Mobile Banking – Financial Inclusion and Economic Empowerment for Low-Income People and Women in Vietnam”, as well as experiences in helping customers, especially the poor and policy beneficiaries in rural and remote areas, approach banking products and services on mobile phones.
According to the Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies Hoang Minh Te, the Mobile Banking project has supported the bank in successfully developing a digital financial platform suitable for its target customers.
After nearly four years, 32 million messages have been successfully sent to approximately 5.9 million customers, who registered their mobile phone numbers with the bank (accounting for 90% of total customers of the Bank for Social Policies). The reception of text messages one month before the repayment deadline and the closure of savings has helped customers to be more proactive and have better plans in finance and savings management.
Meanwhile, after nearly two years, the Policy Credit Management application has been used by 47,786 people in 26 provinces and cities. The VBSP Smartbanking application also has about 75,000 accounts after three months, generating more than 642,000 transactions, equivalent to an amount of over 5.4 trillion VND (230.11 million USD).
Asia Foundation’s Vietnam Country Representative Michael DiGregorio said, that one of the benefits of digital financial education for customers is to improve customers’ sense of saving and ability to make loan repayment plans.
