The Asian Banker joined the State Bank of Vietnam to co- host the Asian Banker Summit 17 - the region’s largest annual gathering for senior executives and industry players in the financial services sector at the JW Marriott Hanoi from May 10 to 12. Into its 17th year, this Summit is themed “Breaking Traditions” featuring five conferences to address the ever-changing landscape of the financial services industry.
The Summit was under the chairmanship of the Asian Banker Chairman Emmanuel Daniel to welcome more than 1,000 thought leaders and innovators of the future from across the globe. Attended the Summit were Prime Minister of Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Minh Hung, United States Congressman Barney Frank among other prominent industry leaders.
Chairman of the Asian Banker Emmanuel Daniel addresses welcome note
at the Asian Banker Summit Opening Session
Addressing the Summit, the Asian Banker Chairman Emmanuel Daniel stated: “The Asian Banker welcome the delegates at a very strange period in the history of banking industry. All around us, we are assailed by forces to make banks irrelevant. We are being asked to break traditions or risk becoming irrelevant. Payment is today dominated by non – bank. This is partially driven by technology, but partially by the transformation in supply chains, and also by customer behavior”.
For facing all threats to make banks irrelevant and new challenges, and to keep up “customer centricity”, the Chairman call on banks in the region to think through the process of “breaking tradition” to avoid to become exhausted in the next few years. He went on, today, “mobile”, “block chain”, “the internet of things” are tearing at our seams, but they are not what will define us. And the Summit aims to do what no other conference appears to be doing today – cut through the hype so that we can ride the waves sustainably.
Prime Minister of Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc delivers welcome speech
at the Asian Banker Summit Opening Session
Delivering welcome speech at the Summit, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc warmly welcome the Summit delegates and expressed his support for the initiate “Breaking the Traditions” of the Asian Banker innovative Summit for its long term vision and determination for creative innovation toward a common financial community. The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam Government committed to continue leading the comprehensive reform of Vietnam economy and be consistent and decisive in the cause of Vietnam economic restructure in parallel with controlling inflation and maintaining macroeconomic stability, and accelerating economic restructure, transforming economic growth model and boosting the competitiveness of the economy to successfully integrate in to the world economy. The restructure of credit institutions and NPL resolution will continue to be accelerated with the decisive improvement of governance capacity and the effectiveness of commercial banks’ performance for matching up with international standards and principles. The Prime Minister highly appreciated the significant achievements of banking comprehensive innovation and its active adaptation in the changing environment to serve the raising economy of Vietnam.
SBV Governor Le Minh Hung delivers opening keynote
at the Asian Banker Summit Opening Session
Speaking at the Summit, SBV Governor Le Minh Hung expressed his sincere thanks to and highly appreciated the support of international banking and finance community for Vietnam as well as for banking system over the past time. The Governor affirmed: The SBV defines banking restructure as an objective factor and insider requirement of banking system that is in need of successful realization to create proactive strengths for banks to cope with the recent challenges and turn these challenges in to the opportunities for future sustainable development of Vietnam banking sector. In the cause of innovation, Vietnam Banking sector have been proactive in regional and international economic integration, of which the realization of the commitments and objectives of TTP and ASEAN economic community are the most recent significant tasks. In this process, SBV have made enormous efforts in completing legal framework and improving its capacity in making policies, supervision and management, to strengthen institutional capacity, restructure and NPL resolution and to matching up with the international standards with high commitment to fully integrate in regional and global financial and banking fields, and contribute in ensuring a fair competitive environment for foreign banks and international investors who run business in Vietnam. He expressed his hope for obtaining more active supports and participation of the community of international donators and investors in the cause of innovation and restructuring Vietnam banking sector.
As we look to the future of the financial industry, banks are now well positioned to rediscover the position of trust and confidence as responsible agents of financial intermediation and facilitator of international trade and investment. While the industry may have been slow to see the evolving future of finance it has embarked on a transformative journey in re-examining long – held conventions and established business practices to address the challenges of the time. In this the same crossroads, Vietnam stands on right now and moves forward together with regional finance industry.
MH