Vietnamese bankers are eager for the application of advanced technological solutions, particularly in network security and payment, to their services in a bid to narrow their development gap with foreign rivals and expand their operation.

The issue is high on the agenda of the Banking Vietnam 2009, which opened in Hanoi on May 28, in the presence of leading local and foreign IT solution providers, including IBM, Hyundai IT, FPY and Symatec, who come up with cutting-edge applicable solutions for banks.

Held for the first time in 2000, the Banking Vietnam has grown far beyond its initial format of a discussion forum to supply Vietnamese bank managers with latest banking technologies in the world to greatly assist them in formulating their own modernization programmes.

This year’s event, the tenth of its kind, is expected to set forth a development strategy of the national banking system in addition to introducing new technological solutions to enable banks to further improve their operation.

In his opening speech, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Van Giau described Banking Vietnam as an efficient bridge for IT providers and banks, and lauded IT application in banks’ operation as fruitions of that linkage.

Recognising enormous benefits from IT use in bank activities, the SBV has since 2002 carried out a banking modernisation and inter-bank e-payment project, which was also one of the Government’s major projects in its 2006-2010 IT development strategy.

According to the SBV, the first phase of the project, completed in late 2003, has enforced essential changes in credit organisations’ payment method, resulting in a great leap forward in terms of payment volume, speed, and value. The second phase is scheduled to complete by the end of this year./.