Vietnam to Rethink Financial Services After a Cutting-edge Show at WFIS

Hanoi, : In an exclusive setup that convened over 500 financial sector professionals, the second annual edition of World Financial Innovation Series (WFIS) in Vietnam gave an industrywide push to accommodate the latest tech advancements in FSI.

Held at one of the poshest 5-star venue, Melia Hanoi, the event took place on 15 – 16 April 2024 and got inaugurated by the Vice Chairman & Secretary General of Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA), Dr Nguyen Quoc Hung and the event organizer, Sudhir Ranjan Jena (Co-founder & CEO, Tradepass).

Unveiling a whole spectrum of discussion around areas like Cloud Technologies, Generative AI, Fintech Leaps and Digital Banking, the platform very precisely depicted the pulse of the industry and got numerous verticals together to engage in meaningful dialogues.

While Generative AI has taken the whole world by storm, it found a significant spot in the conference’s agenda as well. A strong testament to its widespread popularity is the fact that it got highlighted during two distinct keynote sessions titled “Generative AI for Financial Services” by AWS Vietnam & Indochina and “Revolutionizing Banking: The power of Generative AI” by VinBigdata.

During a face-to-face interview, the Chief Digital Officer from Techcombank, Pranav Seth who was also a key speaker at the event, gave an impressive reply explaining how the bank’s recent 22 percent year-on-year Profit Before Tax (PBT) can be attributed to the its digital side.

He expressed, “As a universal bank I think there’s a lot in terms of transformation that needs to come together, so I think digital is a large part of it. On the digital side what we have been able to do is massively scale up our acquisition efforts. So, last year we were able to acquire about 2.3 million high quality customers and create one of the highest engagements with them digitally. Our customers interact with us around 50 times a month and for each of those opportunity we use all the data that we have.”

Furthermore, he went on to talk about what he liked the most about the platform WFIS, “I am really surprised and impressed by the turnout and professionalism of the whole setup and excited to see so many people from the industry in Vietnam. It seems like a very high-quality international event and I am thankful to Tradepass for hosting this in Hanoi.”

The event witnessed a magnificent lineup of thought leaders from Vietnam’s top-notch banks, financial institutions, and technology companies. Even Southeast Asia’s very first fintech to win a digital banking license, UNObank was seen participating in a very insightful fireside chat on MSME Banking.

Its Chairman, Kalidas Ghose even elucidated on the bank’s remarkable journey, he expressed, “So, the journey has obviously been very encouraging and motivating to look at. First of all, we found that with modern technology you can establish a fully compliant bank in a relatively short span of time. But what is more interesting is that the UNObanking model is purely digital so we do not have any physical presence like branches or ATMs. While on one hand that can act as a constraint on the other it can really open up a huge world of opportunities for reaching out to a larger audience of customers”.

Talking in numbers, he further stated, “We have been able to acquire close to 1.5 million customers in less than 15 months’ time and this has been possible because of the strong partnerships but also very efficient organic channels through which we acquire customers.”

The attendees were spoilt for choice as they got a splendid opportunity to explore a wide array of fintech solutions from top technology giants like AWS, VinBigdata, Oracle, Coreium, iProov and many others.

All in all, the two-days at WFIS 2024 – Vietnam gave a glimpse of the country’s progressive future and its vibrant financial sector that’s poised to undertake the latest tech advancements. The participating financial institutions received some eye-opening intel and evaluated cutting-edge products and strategies for enhanced delivery of their services.