At the Banking Sector Digital Transformation Event 2026 held on August 18, 2026, Governor Pham Duc An of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) affirmed: "The banking sector will continue to promote its pioneering role in the national digital transformation, with higher demands for visible results and efficiency: turning technology into productivity; turning data into resources; turning innovation into products and services; and turning digital transformation into convenience for citizens, opportunities for businesses, and new competitive capacity for the economy."
Governor Pham Duc An speaks at the event
The Banking Sector Digital Transformation Event 2026 was held under the theme “Smart Banking in the Era of Data and AI", with the overarching message: "Data Leads the Way, AI Drives Progress, Banks Build the Digital Ecosystem."
2026 marks the fifth consecutive year that the SBV has organized the Banking Sector Digital Transformation event series. It is also the year that the banking sector reviews the five-year implementation of the Banking Sector Digital Transformation Plan to 2025, with orientation to 2030, issued under Decision No. 810/QD-NHNN dated May 11, 2021, while continuing to implement the Banking Sector Digital Transformation Strategy to 2030 issued under Decision No. 3579/QD-NHNN dated November 3, 2025.
Data and AI are means; the ultimate goal is to better serve citizens and businesses
Speaking at the event, Governor Pham Duc An emphasized that this year's theme accurately reflects the requirements of the banking sector in the new development phase. Data and artificial intelligence are not goals in themselves, but must become resources and tools to enhance governance capacity, innovate products and services, strengthen risk management, and better serve citizens and businesses.
Governor Pham Duc An speaks at the event
In his remarks following the Governor, Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung noted that, with this theme and overarching message, digital transformation in the banking sector aims to integrate, share, and effectively utilize data through responsible applications of AI to develop smart banking services. These efforts are intended to enable customers to access banking products and services safely and conveniently anytime and anywhere, while reducing costs and simplifying procedures, thereby contributing to broader development momentum.
Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung speaks at the event
Through the 2026 event, the banking sector seeks to convey a clear message: digital transformation is not merely a story about technology, but, above all, a story about serving people and businesses, bringing greater convenience, safety, and ease to citizen and enterprises in their daily activities. Data and AI are means; the ultimate goal is to better serve citizens and businesses.
Over the past five years, the banking sector’s digital transformation has achieved encouraging results. The legal framework for banking operations in the digital environment has been gradually improved; payment and digital infrastructure has continued to be invested in and upgraded; connections with national databases have been expanded; and digital banking services have developed rapidly.
Currently, nearly 89% of people aged 15 and above have payment accounts. In 2025, the value of cashless payment transactions exceeded 28 times Vietnam’s GDP. The number of cashless payment transactions over the past five years increased by an average of approximately 59% annually, while QR-code-based financial transactions increased by an average of more than 100% annually. During the 2021-2025 period, the average annual growth rates of the volume and value of cashless payment transactions were 58.86% and 24.36% respectively. In the first half of 2026, the volume and value of cashless payment transactions increased by 34.28% and 12.24% respectively, compared with the same period in 2025.
The banking sector has also paid close attention to ensuring the security and safety of payment activities and banking information systems, while strengthening coordination in the prevention and control of high-tech crimes in the banking sector.
The SBV has deployed the System for Intelligent Monitoring and Oversight (SIMO) to support the management, supervision, and prevention of risks to customers, thereby contributing to the prevention and mitigation of fraud and scam risks in digital payment activities. From its implementation through August 6, 2026, the SIMO service for querying the status of payment accounts and e-wallets showing signs of suspected fraud, scams, or violations of law had issued warnings to more than 4.9 million customers. Following these warnings, more than 1.6 million customers temporarily suspended or cancelled transactions, preventing transactions with a total value of more than VND 5.5 trillion.
To help customers minimize risks in payment transactions and contribute to preventing fraud, the SBV has recently requested credit institutions and foreign bank branches to provide limit-registration services incorporating waiting times and cooling-off periods for individual customers making online transfers to beneficiary accounts that had not previously received an amount equal to or exceeding the registered limit from the customer within the preceding 12 months.
Administrative reform associated with end-to-end digitalization has also been accelerated, helping reduce costs and improve convenience for citizens and businesses.
Overview of the event
Taking practical efficiency as the benchmark
Looking ahead, new challenges relating to institutions, data, cybersecurity, digital fraud, privacy protection, and AI governance will continue to emerge rapidly. This requires the banking sector to pursue strong but focused and well-controlled innovation, with practical efficiency as the key benchmark.
Governor Pham Duc An requested SBV entities, credit institutions, and payment intermediary service providers to focus on the following key groups of tasks:
First, continue to review and improve the legal framework to promote innovation while effectively controlling risks. Particular attention should be paid to banking activities in the digital environment, with timely identification and response to emerging issues relating to AI, data, open banking, and new digital banking models.
Second, upgrade digital infrastructure and develop and standardize data. The banking sector should continue to modernize national payment infrastructure toward greater safety, continuity, high-value transaction processing capacity, and expanded connectivity. It should also develop a unified banking-sector data architecture and promote connectivity with the National Data Center and national and specialized databases.
Third, promote practical, responsible, and value-creating applications of AI. Credit institutions should research and develop AI applications in areas such as data analysis, risk management, fraud detection, process optimization, customer service, and product development.
Fourth, attach particular importance to security, safety, and digital trust. Credit institutions should make a strong shift from reactive incident response toward proactive, early, and continuous prevention; and make adequate investments in cybersecurity, data security, and fraud prevention.
Fifth, ensure that digital transformation directly serves citizens and businesses and promotes financial inclusion. Credit institutions should make better use of data to innovate customer assessment methods and credit management, while developing products tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, business households, cooperatives, workers, and rural communities. These efforts should create more favorable conditions for customers with viable business plans and transparent cash flows to access capital conveniently and at reasonable costs.
Sixth, focus on developing high-quality human resources with expertise in data, AI, technology, and cybersecurity, ensuring that the banking sector has the necessary capabilities to adapt to technological developments and successfully implement its digital transformation objectives.
LH