Hanoi (VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) held a conference to launch the banking sector’s action plan to serve the national financial strategy to 2025 with a vision to 2030.
Addressing the event, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Kim Anh said the traditional economic growth model in other countries with the goal of rapid growth has gradually revealed its shortcomings when solving poverty but the increasing income inequality led to other political and social instability.
“The overarching growth model towards long-term sustainability; in which, ensuring harmony between economic growth, social equity and environmental protection has become a common goal of all countries and regions.”
“The inclusive finance system needs to specify vulnerable groups, helping them access the financial system in a favourable manner.”
Considering an inclusive finance system, which serves all stakeholders of society, as one of the important pillars in sustainable development in Vietnam, Anh said: “Such a system will contribute to creating livelihood opportunities, rotating investment capital flows and saving in society and promoting sustainable economic growth.”
According to the central bank, inclusive finance has become a common vision around the world. Up to now, more than 60 countries have developed and implemented a comprehensive national financial strategy. Many countries have come up with innovative solutions in financial technology, focusing on reducing costs and improving the safety and convenience of financial services.
By that, the deputy governor said the system has contributed to improving service accessibility for people and businesses, especially those who have never been served by banks.
To develop such a system in Vietnam, he asked the whole industry to develop a specific plan to implement assigned tasks in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), approved by the Prime Minister in January this year.
By 2015, the NFIS set targets to have at least 80 percent of adults having bank accounts or accounts with other authorised organisations, at least 20 branches and transaction offices of commercial banks per 100,000 adults, at least 50 percent of the total number of communes that have financial service points, at least 25 percent to 30 percent of adults depositing at savings credit institutions.
Also at the conference, Anh told the central bank’s payment department to issue a decree to guide the electronic know your customer/client (e-KYC) in the country this month.
Getting the direction, head of the department Pham Tien Dung also added the decree may define the cryptocurrencies in payment activities and the e-wallet term will be included in international payments.
They would also work on building local mobile money too, said Dung.
According to the payment department, the average growth rate of individual accounts and the total balance in the account reached 10.26 percent and 25.41 percent in 2015-19, respectively. It is expected there will be about 70 percent of Vietnamese adults having a bank account by the end of this year.
As for the Government’s strong push, non-cash transactions have increased sharply in recent years. In the first four months of the year, payments using bank cards increased by 15.7 percent over the same period in 2019, said the department./.
On January 22, 2020, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 149/QD-TTg approving the National Financial Inclusion Strategy to 2025 with a vision to 2030. On July 24, 2020, the Governor of the State Bank signed Decision No. 1309/QD-NHNN promulgating the Bank's Action Plan to implement the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS). The action plan is a basis for units and affiliates of the State Bank of Vietnam and credit institutions to revise their detail strategies, programmes and action plans. This is also the basis for inspecting, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating, as well as learning from the strategy's implementation in each stage, proposing the development of objectives, targets, tasks and solutions for the next stage. |