At the ABF Wholesale Banking Awards 2024 held by Asian Banking and Finance (ABF) magazine in Singapore in July, SHB was honoured in two categories: “Vietnam Domestic SME Partnership Initiative of the Year” and “Vietnam Domestic Social Impact Finance Initiative of the Year”.

ABF's awards are evaluated by experts from the world's leading auditing and consulting firms, such as PwC, Deloitte, EY, and Bain & Company. As one of the five largest private commercial banks in Vietnam, SHB adopts a customer-centric business philosophy with constant efforts to bring suitable, modern, and convenient financial solutions to become a trusted companion of partners and customers.

The two awards at the ABF Wholesale Banking Awards 2024 are testament to SHB's initiatives and impacts on SMEs and women-owned businesses, creating and spreading good values among society.

Support SMEs with innovative financial solutions

As part of its digital transformation strategy to promote digital adoption in operations, products, and services in 2023, SHB cooperated with MISA JSC to implement digital banking connection services on MISA's accounting software, including MISA AMIS and MISA SME.

Thanks to the smooth connection between SHB and MISA's accounting software, accountants can track, monitor, approve, and perform financial transactions anytime, anywhere on multi-platforms such as PCs, mobiles, and tablets. This helps save up to 80 per cent of work processing time and operating costs for businesses. For businesses that use MISA's accounting software, customers can connect to SHB's internet banking within two minutes to be able to integrate and use it immediately.

Leading support for women-owned businesses

In addition to digital solutions as well as innovative, modern, and convenient offerings, SHB is focused on providing affordable capital to customers and businesses, especially women-owned businesses. A support programme to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for women-led SMEs (WSMEs) was implemented by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in collaboration with SHB and other banks. Thanks to these efforts, WSMEs have gradually recovered and restored production and business activities post-pandemic.

SHB has rescheduled repayment terms for WSMEs that faced difficulties due to COVID-19, providing up to six months interest free for new customers. The bank has also exempted all related fees for the firms. The total support value was up to $10,000, deducted from ADB's funding.

The bank has also offered promotions for women-owned businesses to optimise financial transactions, including 'golden' bank account numbers and waiving fees for salary payment services, internet banking, and domestic money transfers.

SHB also signed a credit agreement with the International Finance Corporation for a loan worth $120 million to support the development of its SME loan portfolio. This is an important additional resource for the bank to develop its policies to support SMEs, and WSMEs specifically.

With sustainable finance initiatives and diverse digital offerings for SMEs, SHB was honoured as the "Best SME Bank for Sustainable Finance". Previously, SHB was also awarded the “Best Commercial Bank – SME in Vietnam” by FinanceAsia magazine.