The meeting was also attended by a number of representatives of the State Bank of Vietnam (Department of Credit for Economic Sectors, Department of International Cooperation, Department of Legal Affairs, Department of Foreign Exchange Management, Department of Information Technology, Department of Credit Institutions Supervision and Management); Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and representatives of a number of departments and units of VNBA.
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of VNBA
At the meeting, on behalf of VNBA, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of VNBA, sent his best regards to Mr. Iain Frew, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Vietnam, members of BCG and representatives of units of the State Bank of Vietnam.
He said that in the past, VNBA had worked with the British Embassy and BCG on the project of building the Trade Finance Registry (TFR). After reporting, the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam directed and assigned VNBA to coordinate with relevant units and commercial banks to implement the project. This is considered an important legal basis for project implementation.
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung emphasized that the TFR project has practical significance, has received great attention from credit institutions and will contribute to promoting trade finance, supporting economic growth, and enhancing Vietnam's international integration capacity.
Mr. Iain Frew - Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Vietnam
At the meeting, Mr. Iain Frew - Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Vietnam, thanked VNBA for the reception and highly appreciated the potential of the TFR project. According to him, the project not only supports bilateral trade growth but also creates momentum for many other economic sectors, contributing to strengthening the strategic partnership between the UK and Vietnam.
The Ambassador emphasized that Vietnam is aiming to become a high-income country by 2045; to achieve this, it is necessary to take advantage of development opportunities, in which addressing the gap in trade finance will create a major impact on economic growth, trade and finance at all levels.
Sharing at the meeting, BCG representative said that the journey of developing TFR in Vietnam started in March 2025. In phase 1, the team conducted 15 working sessions with stakeholders, including the State Bank of Vietnam, the Vietnam Banks Association and a number of credit institutions in Vietnam.
Specifically, with the State Bank of Vietnam, BCG discussed opportunities to deploy TFR and received positive feedback, acknowledging the benefits of this platform and being ready to cooperate in the next steps.
With the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA), BCG also worked directly with about 10 banks, recording the consensus that TFR is a useful tool to promote transparency, financial inclusion and trade growth.
According to ICC UK documents (10/2022), trade finance fraud is currently detected in only about 10% of the total number of cases, the actual global fraud value is estimated at about 50 billion USD/year, but only 5 billion USD is detected. This is a major risk that TFR can contribute to solving, thereby narrowing the trade finance gap, bringing practical benefits to banks, businesses and the economy.
According to the ASEAN Financial Services Integration Report, TFR can help banks increase revenue from new business opportunities, while reducing credit losses by about 60-70 million USD per year. For businesses, this platform can add about 0.9-1 billion USD in funding by narrowing the trade finance gap. In addition, the value of financed trade can also increase by 2-2.3 billion USD.
According to international experience, many ASEAN countries have implemented TFR at different levels. In Singapore, TFR was launched in 2023, developed by MonetaGo on a cloud computing platform, integrated with domestic and foreign trade systems, currently covering more than 85% of transaction value.
Overview of meeting
In Thailand, initiated by the Thai Bankers Association and launched in 2022 on the TDR blockchain platform (developed by NITMX), and is on the roadmap to expand international connections. For Malaysia, it has also been in operation for more than 5 years but is still limited, only having the basic function of checking for duplicate transactions, with 4 small banks participating.
For Indonesia, the TFR project is still in the discussion and regulation building stage to facilitate data exchange between banks. In Vietnam, the project has entered phase 2 with three key objectives: establishing the TFR Working Group, building a sandbox mechanism and designing an operating model. BCG representative emphasized that the companionship and support from the management agency is the key factor for the success of TFR.
Welcoming the proposals from BCG, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of VNBA, said that the Association will establish an Implementation Working Group, acting as a focal point to coordinate with commercial banks and propose that the State Bank of Vietnam send a number of functional units to participate. He expressed his hope that, with close coordination between the parties, the project will bring practical results, contributing positively to the development of the financial - banking system and the Vietnamese economy.
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