Hong Kong-based investment bank GIB Global Investment Digital Bank, recently announced its desire to enter the digital banking space in Vietnam, media reports stated. The bank is planning to bid for a digital banking licence from the country. The bank will partner with a Vietnam-based telecom company Vimo and a local payments provider GPay by GCG Asia.
Most South-East Asian countries are racing to devise a regulatory framework to liberalise the banking sector for new digital entrants. Singapore is one of the first countries to announce digital banking licenses in the region. Following this, Malaysia is expected to announce the award for digital banking licenses in 2022. GIB Global Investment Digital Bank has applied for a license with partners in Malaysia.
Norman Wong, chief of digital global banking, GIB Global Investment Digital Bank, told the media, “Vietnam’s young, digitally savvy population is fast-growing and showing the huge demand for digital financial and banking services.”
He further added that the firm’s review of the fintech landscape showed that the usage of e-commerce applications increased during the Covid-19 pandemic along with the digital payments to 70 percent in the first quarter of 2020.
The bank seeks to establish a digital ecosystem supported by a range of services that can further expand through offshoots of ancillary services like insurance, asset management, peer-to-peer exchange lending and credit scoring.