"Never before has the banking industry been as 'thirsty' for technology human resources as it is today"

Speaking at the Banking Human Resources Forum in the face of the technology wave with the theme "Banking in the digital age: Model innovation and human resource restructuring" organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology , the State Bank in collaboration with the Vietnam Association for Science and Technology Information on July 16, Deputy Governor of the State Bank Pham Tien Dung emphasized: "The banking industry has never been as thirsty for human resources in information technology security as it is today. We see a completely changed picture, from direct contact to management methods, supervision methods, and human resources. We are having to adapt to this change."

Banks no longer stand alone

The Deputy Governor said that in the past, banking services were performed automatically, and there were no longer tellers reading bank documents. That required the banking industry to restructure its processes and build smart business processes. It was especially important to have a team that understood the business and information technology to work together to build that business. Any bank that could not do that would not be able to participate in the game. Thus, a new banking team was formed, where technology and business understood each other and went together.

"Bank staff in the past understood accounting very well, setting up this account, this account's debt... and their job was to do the accounting. Now, the machine automatically does the accounting from the stage of swiping money through the phone to pay for selling fish, selling vegetables... the system immediately deducts money from the buyer and transfers it to the seller. The reality has made the bank create a completely different team of employees than before. Another very different point is the number and value of transactions. In the past, we dreamed of having 1 million transactions a day, but now there are 50-100 million financial transactions every day. It challenges us in the question of how to control it," said Mr. Dung.

According to the Deputy Governor, the banking system applies AI to accounting work, applying new technology to control and detect transaction errors.

"According to statistics today, the whole country has about 200 million deposit accounts, with 87% of adults having a bank account, a number that we never dreamed of in 2017. And, the human resources of banks have also changed, most banks have had to establish a specialized block, which is the data block, similar to the credit block to keep up with the volume of transactions and accounts," said Mr. Dung.

Due to the increase in transaction volume and accounts, the State Bank leader affirmed that many banks are now considering information technology risks similar to credit risks. Thus, banks will form another risk management system that covers information technology security.

Delegates attending the Banking Human Resources Forum in the face of technology. (Photo: Vietnam+)

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy said that the entire work of people has now completely changed. Instead of taking care of customers directly in the past, now the customer care profession will need to advise on software, on how the app system is faulty, how to use it. Obviously, this is a new skill of customer care staff. Normal transaction staff used to handle professional skills, but now they have to handle software problems, problems when transferring money wrongly, or being scammed.

"Every 6 months to 1 year, a new generation of technology is born. The next AI systems will be proactive systems, like living organisms, that will automatically advise us and automatically do the work that needs to be done. In addition, there will be a trend of quantum computers, which will pose a huge problem with all types of coding, requiring a complete change. Therefore, updating in training technology human resources will be a continuous task," said Mr. Duy.

How to solve the problem of human resource shortage?

Mr. Pham Ha Duy - Member of the Executive Board and Director of ABBANK Digital Banking & Data Division shared that, with ABBank recently, the personnel related to digital transformation has changed very strongly. Previously, technology was like an industry (like digital banking), but now it has changed, it is technology skills. When recruiting, people only want to recruit people with 5-10 years of experience in banking, but now they need people with technology so that instead of using 10 people, they only need 5 people.

With ABBank last year, there were very new job positions such as customer experience, related to digital growth, digital business, digital marketing, digital partnership. Thus, there is a need for new people, new capabilities, many skills combined in one person.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh - Deputy Director of the Banking Academy said that in order to meet the trend, the banking industry has been actively improving the digital capacity of its staff. The number of bank staff trained in digital transformation, technology, and artificial intelligence has increased sharply since 2022. As a university under the State Bank, the Banking Academy is the first university in Vietnam to issue the 'Digital Capacity' output standard - mandatory for 100% of learners.

However, the demand for digital human resources in the banking industry is always high, posing a great challenge in promptly meeting the demand for high-quality human resources to serve the digital transformation process. Therefore, Ms. Pham Thi Hoang Anh said, the Banking Academy determined that it is necessary to continue to improve the digital teaching ecosystem, upgrade technology infrastructure, enhance digital capacity and expand cooperation. Build a comprehensive digital learning environment, develop interdisciplinary training programs on Fintech, AI and data science...

According to Ms. Hoang Anh, in order to have a sufficient supply of technology human resources to meet the demand in the banking industry, it is necessary to issue a digital competency framework for the banking industry, according to job positions; strengthen cooperation according to the "3-house model": State Bank - Training institutions - financial, scientific and technological institutions.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Thi Hoang Anh - Deputy Director of Banking Academy shared at the forum. (Photo: Vietnam+)

"We want to develop a set of digital training standards for the banking industry and hope to receive support from the State Bank to provide better training, to link theory with practice, so that students can participate more in practice, gain more experience, and receive specialized training," said Ms. Hoang Anh.

Banking and finance expert Nguyen Tri Hieu said that in its training program, the Banking Academy must train people who understand AI technology, BigData but also understand banking and banking services. Only then can they combine to create a team of personnel that meets future needs.

Also proposing to increase human resources in banking technology, Dr. Tran Van Tung - Chairman of the Vietnam Association for Science and Technology Information also said: "There are many solutions to increase human resource supply, but one of the important solutions that needs to be focused on right now is training and retraining the banking industry's human resources. We need to equip them with new knowledge, digital skills, and understanding of technology such as AI, so that they can master and effectively use digital tools - such as chatbots, data analysis systems - to better serve their business"./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/chua-bao-gio-nganh-ngan-hang-khat-nhan-luc-cong-nghe-nhu-hien-nay-post1049914.vnp