The Smart Banking Summit 2023 is organised by the Việt Nam Banks Association (VNBA) in collaboration with IEC Group, under the professional sponsorship of the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV), in Hà Nội on Friday. — Photo thitruongtaichinhtiente.vn

HÀ NỘI — Data security is an important issue in ensuring continuous operations, and is considered a vital factor for banks.

The Smart Banking Summit 2023 was organised by the Việt Nam Banks Association (VNBA) in collaboration with IEC Group, under the professional sponsorship of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), in Hà Nội on Friday.

Speaking at the event, SBV deputy governor Phạm Tiến Dũng said that in the development of the Industry 4.0, data has become a new resource, an important and decisive factor in the digital transformation process.

In particular, large banks in Việt Nam have made changes and have their own warehouses and data centres.

For the banking industry, developing and effectively exploiting digital data is one of nine solution task groups to implement the goal of digital transformation in the banking industry in Decision No 810/QĐ-NHNN of the SBV Governor.

Data not only helps banks authenticate and identify customers, but also through technology applications to analyse and capture consumer behaviour and trends, thereby making decisions in product and service development and supply to meet market needs and improve operational efficiency.

The SBV deputy governor asked bank leaders to pay attention to two issues, which are ensuring continuous operations and ensuring security.

The deputy governor informed that the amending Law on Credit Institutions would require banks to develop scenarios for unusual situations, otherwise they would not be able to handle when a crisis occured.

General Director of Tiên Phong Joint Stock Commercial Bank (TPBank) Nguyễn Hưng said that the bank only processed three million transactions per month five years ago.

But now, the bank has 100 million transactions per month and if the system stopped for just a few minutes, hundreds of thousands of customers would be affected.

“There are so many different options to use now. Therefore, the crucial and vital thing for the bank is to ensure there is no interruption and continuous operation," said Hưng.

Opening the plenary session of the event, Trần Văn Tần, vice chairman of VNBA council, said that in recent times, the banking industry has had many directives, circulars, and action plans to realise digital transformation goals.

According to statistics from the SBV, the banking industry has invested more than VNĐ15 trillion (US$625 million) in digital transformation activities by the end of last year.

"This shows that Việt Nam is expanding rapidly and has great potential for developing digital banking applications, helping the country become one of the leading countries in the banking industry revolution," emphasised Tần.

In addition to pointing out the results of the banking industry in digital transformation activities in general as well as the collection, exploitation and processing of digital data, Tần also commented that in this process, banks also were facing many challenges, including maintaining a balance between data exploitation and protection.

Digital transformation has many new, complex, and rapidly changing elements, requiring continuous absorption of international achievements and experiences and creative application appropriate to the specific conditions and circumstances of the country.

The VNBA representative expected that the summit titled “Harnessing and leveraging data: Shaping the future of the banking industry in the digital age” was truly a forum for regulatory agencies, researchers and the community of banks and credit institutions to discuss issues for successful and sustainable digital transformation of the banking industry.