Skip to main content

Mobile banking poised to take off in Vietnam’s rural areas

Vietnam’s rural population is still struggling with access to basic financial services. With the high mobile penetration rate, can mobile phones be a platform to address their needs? Yap Far Loon, Business Development Director, Telecommunications at Spire Research and Consulting, shared his insights on the untapped potential for mobile financial services to serve Vietnam’s rural population in The Saigon Times Daily.

According to a Spire report, an astounding 60 million people in Vietnam do not have access to basic financial services. Only 22% of the population – predominantly those residing in urban areas – have access to financial services.
Why are the rural areas being left out? Yap opined that high costs are the main reason. For instance, the cost of installation, maintenance, operation and location rental for Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) alone exceeds VND300 million annually. Moreover, as rural transaction volumes are low, economies of scale are limited, making it even more expensive for the financial service provider.

But Vietnam’s high mobile penetration rate has created the possibility of another platform – mobile devices – for accessing financial services. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications Statistics for December 2013, Vietnam has approximately 150 million telephone subscribers – of which 93% of them are mobile phone users. This implies a mobile penetration rate of over 100%. The 3G network in the country covers up to 20 million subscribers.
Hence, it is high time for service providers to tap into this market. In May 2014, online mobile service company mService joined hands with Vietcombank and VinaPhone to launch a mobile money transaction service known as MoMo. The account number for this service is the same as the customer’s mobile phone number, making the application user-friendly.

If initiatives like this succeed, we can expect mobile e-banking, e-payments and e-commerce to take off among Vietnam’s huge rural population. But to make that happen requires a high level of co-operation amongst financial institutions, mobile network operators and mobile payment processors.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spire speaks on Omni-channel strategies for Indonesian retailers

Spire was honored to participate in the Samsung Top Achiever Retailer (STAR) event held on 22 August, in Jakarta. Albertus Edy Rianto, Senior Manager, Spire Indonesia, shared his insights on the significance of Omni – channel strategies for mobile phone retailers. Albertus discussed offline-to-online strategy, where multiple channels merge to help target customers across various channel platforms. He elaborated that more than 80% of Indonesian mobile phone retail sales in 2020 will still occur at physical outlets. However, 71% of Indonesians browse online for a while prior to shopping at a physical store. Factors that influence customers include better delivery conditions, storefront apps for better sales and even packaging. As customers become more tech-savvy and demanding, more consideration will be given to innovative payment processes and browsing more than one channel to make a purchase. As far as online purchases are concerned, 25% of customers still feel ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asia-Pacific nations poised to sign the world’s largest multi-lateral trade agreement, RCEP, in 2020

After six years of negotiations, more than a dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific are poised to sign the world’s largest trade agreement, known as the Regional Comprehensive Partnership (RCEP), in 2020. This agreement would boost commerce among participating countries by lowering tariffs as well as standardizing customs rules and procedures. The RCEP will widen market access, especially for those countries that do not have existing many bilateral trade agreements in place. Will India pay a price for its decision to stay out of the RCEP? Read more:  https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/asia-pacific-nations-poised-to-sign-the-worlds-largest-multi-lateral-trade-agreement-rcep-in-2020/
Post a Comment
Read more

Spire talks about ICT strategies at ICT market Movement 2019 in Yogyakarta

On 20th January, Spire was honored to participate in the ICT Market Movement 2019, Strategic Plan 2020 in Yogyakarta. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Spire Research and Consulting Group shared his insights on the outlook for the Indonesian ICT sector and the strategies needed to win. Jeffrey discussed strategies for digital transformation, which is a watch-word among most corporates in Indonesia today. Going forward, key areas for ICT players to look at include Big Data, the Internet of Things and smart payment solutions. While cyber security remains a concern, technological advancements are improving the security options and tool-kit available to companies. Read more:  https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/spire-talks-about-ict-strategies-at-ict-market-movement-2019-in-yogyakarta/
Post a Comment
Read more

Spire and YBC host breakfast seminar on the impact of demonetization in India

On 20 January, Spire and Yamada Business Consulting (YBC) jointly held a breakfast seminar in Singapore to explore the impact on India’s economy of the recent Rupee demonetization of high-value currency notes. Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, Japnit Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Spire and Yasuyuki (Luke) Kita, General Manager of YBC (Singapore), addressed the session. Spire Singapore and YBC discussed the demonetization’s impact on different industry sectors, on e-commerce and on the outlook for doing business in India in 2017. The speakers talked about how demonetisation will spur growth in cashless transactions. Although the retail and car resale sector will suffer short-term damage, there is a visible shift towards modern trade and online transactions. Moreover, ease of doing business and transparency will rise, making India more investment-friendly. https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/spire-and-ybc-host-br...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spire talks about ASEAN B2B marketing best practices for companies in Osaka

Spire participated in a seminar organized on Go-to-Market best practices in the B2B space in Asia. The event was held on 14th June in Osaka, Japan. Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting Group, shared insights on ASEAN marketing trends with senior executives of Japanese companies headquartered in the Kansai region of Japan. Jeffrey shared business-to-business (B2B) marketing tips for Japanese companies struggling to work with local partners in ASEAN countries. The Asian ‘Tiger Cub Economies’ country landscape is evolving, with new emerging economies joining the ranks. Vietnam has joined Indonesia and Thailand as one of the low-cost production hubs in ASEAN, whereas the Philippines has emerged to become one of the key markets for sourcing materials for secondary industries. Therefore, the right ASEAN countries should be selected depending on one’s market position and strategic intent. For certain industries, the market dynamics a...
Post a Comment
Read more