In Vietnam, though monetary establishments have realised the potential of open banking to allow extra inclusive and accessible monetary companies, a patchy authorized framework is hampering their efforts to hitch the information revolution.
Praising the alternatives caused information sharing, Nguyen Quoc Hung, Normal Secretary of the Vietnam Banks Affiliation, advised Vietnam Funding Evaluate in a latest interview that open banking permits monetary establishments to collaborate with different stakeholders, enabling them to be a part of the embedded finance motion the place banking companies are provided in a contextual and seamless method on the proper time and on the proper place.
Open banking can even drive monetary inclusion by lowering obstacles to entry and enabling the usage of various monetary information for credit score scoring and danger evaluation, he added.
Can Van Luc, Chief Economist on the Financial institution for Funding and Growth of Vietnam (BIDV), mentioned that though open banking stays a reasonably new idea, the development holds super potential, particularly contemplating Vietnam’s younger and related inhabitants, rising cellular banking utilization, and booming e-commerce actions.
At state-owned VietinBank, Deputy Normal Director Tran Cong Quynh Lan, mentioned the monetary establishment has been engaged on an open banking technique since 2017, citing the idea as being of “utmost significance” to its digital transformation journey.
VietinBank’s head begin has allowed it to amass a associate base of greater than 100 corporations that embrace superapp and ride-hailing big Seize, in addition to cellular cost chief MoMo (M_Service). These corporations now use VietinBank’s iConnect open banking framework to entry clients’ information and supply superior experiences in addition to personalised services.
https://developer.vietinbank.vn/
“As of now, 148 totally different companies from 116 companions have been made out there due to VietinBank’s open banking platform,” Tran mentioned. “A mean of greater than 12 million monetary transactions are carried out on the iConnect platform every month.”
The necessity for a complete framework
The previous couple of years have seen a rising variety of Vietnamese banks waking as much as the open banking alternative, introducing developer portals and offering open software programming interfaces (APIs) for third events to make use of.
Nevertheless, regardless that {industry} individuals have made important strides, the shortage of a complete regulatory framework round open banking is hindering their efforts to completely embrace the idea.
In a June 2022 visitor put up on Vietnamese information outlet Bao Dau Tu (Funding Newspaper), Roy Anirban, Deputy Normal Director of OCB’s Digital Banking and Know-how division, wrote that guidelines and requirements should be launched to make sure interoperability, safety and shopper information privateness.
Roy Anirban
“When there isn’t any widespread commonplace for open banking, totally different banks will implement totally different API safety protocols, resulting in the potential of information theft from some open banking individuals,”
Anirban wrote.
“[In addition,] non-bank ecosystem companions must join utilizing totally different API codecs from financial institution to financial institution, which can have an effect on the standard of the system software program, introduce danger for poor buyer expertise as totally different banks will present totally different data.”
On the Monetary Companies and Open Banking Discussion board 2022 on June 17, 2022, a consultant of consulting agency Deloitte shared the same sentiment, deploring the shortage of requirements and guidelines.
The spokesperson mentioned that the foremost problem in implementing open banking is that there are not any pointers on open APIs and that there have been no widespread requirements on data expertise methods, information storage, safety, connectivity.
Pham Tien Dung, Deputy Governor of the State Financial institution of Vietnam (SBV), advised Vietnam Funding Evaluate that the present legislative framework for open banking in Vietnam is in place, however is, nevertheless, inadequate in coping with the quick tempo of growth the sector is witnessing.
Provisions are dispersed all through quite a few legal guidelines, starting from digital transactions and credit score establishments, to cybersecurity and private data guidelines, and no complete regulatory framework at the moment exists.
“Concerned authorities should coordinate and touch upon the drafted governmental decrees on information safety, private identification, and digital authentication within the coming months in order that the paperwork issued will probably be totally up to date,” Pham mentioned.
Vietnam lags behind Southeast Asian counterparts
In comparison with its Southeast Asian counterparts, Vietnam has lagged behind the likes of Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand in relation to open banking adoption.
Within the Philippines, the central financial institution has set pointers for each banks and non-banks to interact within the digital monetary market beneath the open finance surroundings.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) formally launched its Open Finance Framework in January 2022, presenting its prime priorities for the years to come back, together with capability constructing, growth, and adoption of industry-accepted requirements beneath a test-and-learn method.
In the meantime, Singapore has adopted an natural method to open banking with adoption being nonetheless facilitated by the Financial Authority of Singapore (MAS) via initiatives corresponding to SGFinDex, an open banking platform that lets people retrieve private monetary data from taking part monetary establishments, the inventory alternate, and from authorities housing and pension companies, in addition to by promulgating requirements for APIs, information authentication and safety.
Much like Singapore, Malaysia has taken a market-driven method by releasing a non-mandatory guideline framework for working with open information and open APIs.
Thailand, which launched again in 2020 the Private Information Safety Act, is at the moment working on new coverage pointers for the banking sector, together with open banking.
Featured picture: Unsplash
