Of Vietnamese Banks, Fintech & the Internet of Things

Tran Nhat Minh, deputy CEO of VIB Bank, said that more businesses are taking full advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) providing products and services online, Vietnamese Banks will have to be ready to compete with rival bankers, Tech Companies and Fintech start-ups.
Apple has jumped into the payment service field with Apple Pay, while Alibaba has opened Mybank with the service like electronic banking. Even Uber can eat into banks’ market share if in the future; customers can pay via their Uber accounts, not through bank accounts. Meanwhile, fintech startups have been mushrooming in number.
According to Nguyen Huong Quynh, CEO of Nielsen Vietnam, consumers’ habits have changed rapidly as they have been influenced by smartphones and social networks. Nine out of 10 Vietnamese (91 percent) now have smartphones as their personal devices, while they spend 24/7 on internet access.
Up to 50 percent of business owners believe that e-commerce would contribute 30 percent or even more to their business growth in the next five years, while 32 percent think e-commerce would bring 20 percent of total revenue in the next five years.
Analysts commented that e-commerce was still in its infancy period in South East Asia, but said it would develop rapidly and change the face of the retail market.