The Project of “Mobile Banking – Financial Inclusion and Economic Empowerment for the low-income population and women in Vietnam” is a meaningful initiative for the enhancement and improvement of accessibility to financial inclusion services by the poor and other policy beneficiaries, especially micro enterprises owned by women. This was the information delivered by Mr. Robin Bednall, First Secretary of the Embassy of Australia to Vietnam, at the launching ceremony of the Project, which was organized by Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP).
The ceremony was chaired by Mr. Bui Quang Vinh, Deputy General Director of VBSP. Also attending the ceremony were Mr. Robin Bednall, First Secretary of the Embassy of Australia to Vietnam; Mr. Michael DiGregorio, the Asia Foundation's Country Representative in Vietnam; Ms. Winnie Wong, Mastercard Country Manager for Vietnam; representatives from several international institutions in Vietnam; VBSP Board of Management, and the departments of VBSP head office.
The Project of “Mobile Banking – Financial Inclusion and Economic Empowerment for the low-income population and women in Vietnam” is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the Business Cooperation Program, aiming to improve access to financial services for poor and low-income households, especially micro-businesses run by women.
With a wide network of nearly 11,000 transaction points at 63 branches across the country, the strength of the VBSP is having a transaction network with coverage down to the village/commune level. Currently, VBSP is serving over 6.6 million customers, with a total loan outstanding of VND 198,968 billion, of which nearly 80% of their customers are living in the rural, remote and mountainous areas; their female customers account for 60% and nearly 90% of female customers are participating in production and business activities in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
Phase II of the Project will be implemented with the collaboration of VBSP, Mastercard and the Asia Foundation (TAF) during the period from 2019 - 2022 in 10 provinces: Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh, Ha Giang, Lao Cai , Nghe An, Quang Tri, Binh Dinh, Dak Lak, Ho Chi Minh, Can Tho.
An overview of the ceremoy
According to VBSP Deputy General Director Bui Quang Vinh, the implementation of the Project would contribute to improve the capabilities of VBSP in providing diversified and convenient digital financial services to their customers, including poor people, students in difficulty, who need to borrow loans for their pursuit of education, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, overseas Vietnamese workers, especially in the rural, remote and mountainous areas. The Project is also aimed to contribute to the implementation of VBSP’s Information Technology Development Plan until 2025 with the objective of developing an IT system towards technological innovations, diversification of banking products and services, modern banking services, thereby enhancing accessibility to banking services by customers and modernizing the governance of VBSP.
Mr. Robin Bednall, First Secretary of the Embassy of Australia to Vietnam, speaks at the ceremony
According to Mr. Robin Bednall, First Secretary of the Embassy of Australia to Vietnam, the Project of “Mobile Banking – Financial Inclusion and Economic Empowerment for the low-income population and women in Vietnam” is a meaningful initiative for the enhancement and improvement of accessibility to financial inclusion services by the poor and other policy beneficiaries, especially micro enterprises owned by women.
In the second phase of the Project, VBSP would continue to improve the quality of SMS text messaging service for VBSP’s customers, ensuring that 100% of VBSP’s customers have registered their phone numbers with the receiving bank, understand the messages and can send feedback to VBSP. The second phase would also focus on supporting knowledge and experience for VBSP to build a digital financial platform, including developing technological solutions for mobile banking services. It is expected that by the end of the Project, VBSP may start to provide mobile banking services to the Heads of the Savings and Loan Groups, and carry out pilot payment services for their customers, thereby helping their customers to get access to financial inclusion services, while improving the service quality and increasing the cost efficiency for both VBSP and their customers.
Le Hang