Digital banking transformation: Customer-centric, data-driven

Digital transformation in the banking sector is entering an accelerated phase with many important milestones. Not only digitizing processes, the banking industry is also restructuring the entire customer journey, considering data as a strategic asset and customers as the center. This is considered a key factor to improve the experience, promote financial inclusion, ensure safety and create momentum for sustainable development.

That was the opinion of delegates at the annual Banking Industry Summit and Exhibition (Smart Banking 2025) officially taking place with the theme "Breakthrough in digital transformation of the banking industry: Data is the foundation, customers are the center" held on September 25 in Hanoi .

The event was organized under the auspices of the State Bank of Vietnam , implemented by the Vietnam Banks Association in coordination with IEC Group, accompanied by the National Data Association and the National Cyber Security Association.

Customers are at the center of digital transformation

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Governor of the State Bank Pham Tien Dung said that the State Bank is one of the few ministries and sectors that have issued a system of Circulars to regulate the entire process of collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing data. In the banking industry, all data is within the legal framework, from statistical reports, credit information monitoring, CIC, anti-money laundering, to business applications.

In addition to the motto of “correct-enough-clean-living”, data must solve two key problems: effective exploitation and building smart, convenient applications for users. Currently, the Banking industry has deeply integrated with the National Population Database and is the first unit to issue a Circular on Open API.

"Data is the foundation and a valuable resource. However, customers are the center. Therefore, in the current digital age, the banking industry must meet three factors: creating good, smart applications for customers, effectively supporting customers, and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of customers," Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung emphasized.

Explaining more specifically, the Deputy Governor said that the banking industry must provide truly good, smart, easy-to-use applications that quickly protect customers, ensuring both safety and convenience. Customer-centricity must be met from training, guidance to operation, everything must be smooth and seamless.

Currently, 98% of customers have made transactions on digital channels. In addition, the State Bank has also built a legal corridor to facilitate banks to develop standard products and services, complying with international standards and norms to serve customers. According to the Deputy Governor, this is an important foundation for the banking industry to develop activities in the digital space, promoting comprehensive finance.

The results also show that many large banks have cut over 100 transaction offices thanks to 98% of customers switching to digital channels. The proportion of Vietnamese adults with bank accounts has reached nearly 88% - a foundational figure for inclusive financial development.

“In just one day, the banking system recorded over 30 million transactions, with a total value of about VND900,000 billion, equivalent to about USD40 billion in inter-branch transactions, this is an extremely large number,” the Deputy Governor added.

z7047945498194-5744e9ef661f55f9c06d052e444a20a420250925112641.jpg — Overview of the workshop. (Photo: Vietnam+)

With such a huge number of transactions, Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung said that ensuring banking security and maintaining safe and continuous operations is an important issue of concern for the banking industry.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Banking Association affirmed that in recent times, many credit institutions have shifted from digitizing each process to redesigning the entire customer journey. From 'owning discrete data' to 'managing data as a strategic asset', from passive reaction to forecasting and proactively suggesting needs.

Protect customer rights with smart applications

According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, to achieve real "breakthroughs" in 2025 and the next period, the banking industry needs to simultaneously solve many problems such as standardization and data cleaning across the entire system. Build a unified data architecture to avoid overlapping solutions. Establish a comprehensive data governance framework on security, privacy and ethical use as well as enhance the ability to interconnect controlled data between banks and identity platforms, population data, businesses, e-commerce, insurance, telecommunications. Enhance real-time analysis capacity to serve instant decision-making in credit granting, risk management and fraud monitoring.

Mr. Hung especially noted that the principle of “customer-centricity” must be reflected in value, experience, safety and trust, not just in slogans. Data-driven business strategies help banks personalize products, optimize risk detection processes, prevent fraud, improve loan processing, and enhance market forecasting capabilities.

Regarding this issue, Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung said that customers are the center not only in the experience but also in protecting safety and legal rights. Many banks have allowed customers to proactively lock cards, limit transaction limits, and suspend payments directly on the application instead of having to wait for a call center connection. These are specific and practical steps to protect customers in the context of increasingly sophisticated fraud and scam risks.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Banks Association. (Photo: Vietnam+)

To truly put customers at the center, according to Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung, banks need to develop smart, highly integrated applications that connect directly to the national population database. Allowing customers to open accounts via VNeID is a big step forward, but to achieve this requires the banking system and the Ministry of Public Security to be closely integrated, which is also not a simple process.

Meanwhile, in terms of data security, Major General Nguyen Ngoc Cuong - Director of the National Data Center, Ministry of Public Security, Vice President of the National Data Association emphasized the strategic importance of data in the digital age.

Major General Nguyen Ngoc Cuong - Director of the National Data Center (Ministry of Public Security) emphasized that a smart bank must first of all be a "data-savvy" bank. In the world, many financial institutions have considered themselves "data companies" and invested heavily in data warehouses, AI and specialized human resources.

In Vietnam, the banking industry has identified data as a “strategic resource,” demonstrated through the application of chip-embedded citizen identification cards to authenticate customers, clean up records, or utilize big data from telecommunications and social networks to score credit and prevent fraud.

However, according to Major General Nguyen Ngoc Cuong, data quality is still inadequate: duplication, discrepancy; sharing infrastructure is not yet connected; data exploitation is only limited to internal service, financial data market has not yet formed; while security and privacy requirements are increasingly strict. Therefore, perfecting the sharing mechanism, standardizing data and enhancing network security should be considered top priority to fully promote the value of data in the banking industry./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/chuyen-doi-so-ngan-hang-lay-khach-hang-lam-trung-tam-du-lieu-lam-nen-tang-post1064008.vnp