Vietnam Banks Association: 30 years of accompanying and working side by side with member organizations

Reporter: In 2024, VNBA celebrates 30 years of establishment and development. Could you please share your view on the positive results the Association has achieved recently?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung: After 30 years of construction and development, VNBA has increasingly developed and made more and more progresses. The Association's activities always adhere to its principles and goals, becoming increasingly professional and effective. These results are achieved thanks to the consensus of all member organizations (MOs), the effective direction of the Association Council, as well as the unity, solidarity and efforts of generations of leaders and all staff of the Standing Agency.

With the motto of improving the quality and efficiency of performance, Implementing well the function as a bridge to support members to develop safely and sustainably, For the past 30 years, VNBA has always accompanied , standing side by side with MOs, carrying out important tasks of the banking industry and the country, a proud journey of overcoming many difficulties and hardships to achieve the following outstanding achievements:

Firstly, perform well the role of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of MOs, worthy the trust of MOs.

Secondly, perform well the role of contributing opinions on policy mechanisms through organizing and attending seminars and discussions both domestically and internationally. VNBA has coordinated closely and regularly with some National Assembly’s Committees, the Government Office, the State Bank of Vietnam, the Supreme People's Court, the People’s Supreme Procuracy and relevant ministries and branches (Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Public Security), Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment...) organized seminars and discussions to collect comments/opinions on hundreds of important draft legal documents that have great impact and influence on banking operations from the Constitution, Laws, Decrees, Circulars... With a high sense of responsibility, the content of comments and opinions is very relevant, consistent with legal regulations and practice, many opinions of the Association have been recognized and absorbed by the competent authorities.

Thirdly, perform a good role as a bridge between management agencies and MOs on two aspects: (1) Propagate, disseminate, mobilize, and call on MOs to properly and seriously comply with the policies and guidelines of the Party, State and Banking industry; (2) Synthesize the difficulties and problems of MOs, then report these to management agencies to remove difficulties and problems.

Fourthly, do a good job of communication to help society, people, customers, businesses, as well as management agencies understand and share the activities of MOs as well as the banking industry. Through the communication activities, beautiful images and examples of good bank staff are also replicated and spread throughout the system and society.

In particular, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment, VNBA has hosted sideline activities such as: Launching the Emulation Movement for the entire system of MOs; Organizing competitions to honor the beauty of banking staff, especially the contest "Understanding on the Professional ethical standards and codes of conduct of banking staff “that have contributed to spreading the Code of Professional Ethics to the entire banking system in particular and the entire society in general. It could be said that the close guidance of the Association Council, the enthusiastic support of MOs, and the consensus as well as the solidarity of the Standing Agency's staff for the past 30 years have created the prestige and position of VNBA both domestically and internationally.

Reporter: With the foundations that have been built, what do you think about the advantages and challenges that VNBA and its member organizations would face in the years ahead?

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung: VNBA turns 30 years old in 2024, entering a new period of many changes in the banking environment, banks will not only face with many new opportunities/advantages but also many challenges. In my opinion, there will be some advantages for the activities of VNBA and MOs as follows:

Firstly, the activities of VNBA always receive close direction and high consensus from the VNBA’s Association Council as well as the active participation from MOs.

Secondly, the opinions of VNBA and MOs received great support from State management agencies, especially the State Bank of Vietnam. In particular, ministries and branches always pay full attention, comprehend the VNBA’s advices and comments on the policy mechanisms for the goal of creating realistic policy mechanisms.

Thirdly, VNBA's Standing Agency always pays great attention to the internal activities of Party, labour union so as to create a united and unified office. At the same time, officials and employees of the Standing Agency always make their best efforts to improve their capacity, professional qualifications and work with the highest spirit and responsibility to complete the planned tasks.

As for the challenges, they can be mentioned as:

Firstly, the banking industry as well as VNBA need pay more attention to financial institutions to understand their problems and difficulties in order to promptly protect the rights of MOs, as well as to fulfill their roles and responsibilities.

Secondly, problems related to policy mechanisms are arising more and more in the changing context so VNBA and MOs need to try the best to improve knowledge as well as ability to solve them in more reasonable and more convincing manner.

Thirdly, digital transformation has been developing very strongly in the banking industry, but at the same time, high-tech criminals are also becoming more sophisticated and cunning. Fraudulent tricks through the application of high technology are affecting the reputation of the banking industry in payment, money transfer and other services.

Fourthly, credit institutions are facing great difficulties related to bad debt and the legal framework for debt handling. In the context of many fluctuations in the world economy, the Resolution No. 42/2017/QH14 will expire soon, the banking industry is trying to "solely" handle bad debt. Meanwhile, a few of individuals and enterprises show poor debt repayment awareness and do not cooperate with banks. Evenly, for personal consumer loans, there is a situation of "debt explosion" groups forming on social networks, greatly affecting the activities of credit institutions in general and financial companies in particular. It makes it more difficult for people with legitimate needs to access available funds, creating conditions for "black credit" to arise. Therefore, VNBA hopes to receive sharing and support from customers, enterprises and people so that the banking industry in general and credit institutions in particular can feel safely in investing in the economy, sharing difficulties for enterprises.

Although there are still many difficulties and challenges, I believe that, with the results achieved for over the past 30 years, with the new spirit, high unity, the consensus and joint efforts of MOs, VNBA will successfully complete the planned tasks, perform well the assigned mission and continue to create new pages of glorious history in the coming journey.