Bringing digital banking to the village, Agribank and farmers enter the digital era

In many rural villages, it is no longer strange for people to buy animal feed, pay school fees, pay electricity bills, and even buy vegetables… with just a few scans of QR codes or a few taps on their phones. With the continuous efforts of Agribank, millions of small transactions in rural areas are being digitized every day. The gap between rural and urban areas is also gradually being erased.

Agribank covers digital finance

Banks cover digital finance throughout the countryside

Mr. Tran Van Hai, the owner of a chicken farm in Hoang Su Phi ( Ha Giang ), said that in the past, every time he needed to buy chickens or animal feed, he had to travel dozens of kilometers to withdraw money to pay. But now, everything is much easier.

“Nowadays, villagers still mainly accept cash when buying and selling, but with shops and agents, it is much more convenient. With just a smartphone, I can pay for everything from animal feed, breeding animals to electricity, water, phone bills…”, Mr. Hai excitedly said.

Exploiting the most difficult "battlefield" is the large rural area, guiding customers to use Agribank's digital banking is more difficult than many other banks whose operating areas are mainly in urban areas.

Moreover, for a country with a high proportion of its population living in rural areas like Vietnam, bringing digital financial services to farmers in remote areas is not only a challenge but also an important mission, contributing to the realization of the goal of comprehensive finance. Over the past time, with tireless efforts to bring digital banking to the villages, Agribank has gradually erased the rural-urban gap in digital payments, opening a modern and humane financial era for rural areas.

The smartphone in the hands of farmers is now not only a communication tool, but also the key to opening the modern financial world , where every transaction becomes faster and easier than ever.

Mr. Tran Van Tai, Deputy Director of Agribank Ha Tinh Branch, said: “Rural areas still have many barriers in accessing digital technology such as small-scale production, outdated technology, and limited education. Therefore, Agribank has invested heavily to “spread” technology, promote digital finance, and comprehensive finance to all parts of the country.”

Accordingly, the bank provides many high-tech solutions to support capital mobilization, credit provision and modern financial services. Notably, it issues payment cards in rural areas, opens social security accounts for policy beneficiaries, expands ATM/CDM networks in remote areas; and implements collection of electricity, water, telecommunications bills, etc., helping people easily access digital financial services, improving their quality of life.

Mr. Hoang Minh Ngoc, Deputy General Director of Agribank, affirmed that Agribank is proud to bring digital identification technology to remote areas, ensuring that social security policies reach the right people at the right time. Currently, Agribank is supporting more than 500,000 vulnerable customers to receive monthly social security benefits automatically through their accounts, with more than VND 210,000 billion paid, through the bilateral insurance - banking system.

“In the past, many people, especially those in remote areas, had to travel for hours through forests, across streams, and queue in the rain and sun just to receive a subsidy. Whenever they encountered problems such as incorrect information, missing documents, or no list, people had to quietly return empty-handed. With the mission of serving the community, Agribank has identified digital transformation as the way for banks to not only be a place to deposit money, but also a place to place trust and hope,” emphasized Mr. Hoang Minh Ngoc.

Digital transformation is not just about technology transformation

To shorten the geographical distance and bring financial services closer to each citizen, recently, Agribank has developed solutions for remote account opening, digital identity authentication via VNeID, cashless payments, etc.

In order to leave no one behind, Agribank determined that the next step is not only to expand the physical network, but also to connect data and integrate technology to personalize financial services, in order to serve people anywhere to have access to modern, safe and humane banking services.

Up to now, Agribank has cleaned the data of nearly 9 million customers; more than 3.2 million customers in remote areas such as Son La, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lang Son, Bac Kan, Yen Bai, ... have been supported and guided directly and more than 3 million accounts have been opened completely online.

Agribank's next move is to integrate with the national digital identification platform (VNeID) - which has nearly 63 million users - so that people can open a bank account at Agribank right on the VNeID application without paperwork and without having to go directly to the counter. Agribank affirms that the banking system can automatically identify people who are eligible for the policy, thereby suggesting free account opening, providing easy-to-use preferential services, and supporting low-interest loans.

By covering modern payment products in rural areas, the number of transactions through Agribank has grown strongly, at times reaching nearly 60 million transactions/day, with 96% of transactions being automatic.

Not only a transformation in technology, according to Mr. Hoang Minh Ngoc, Deputy General Director of Agribank, digital transformation for Agribank is also a transformation in the way of serving, bringing respect and humanity into every small transaction, especially with the disadvantaged.

In addition, digital transformation also opens up a life of outstanding convenience, simplifies daily transactions with modern payment solutions, and promotes a sustainable green lifestyle for the community.

In parallel with product and service development, the Bank always focuses on solutions to enhance security and ensure transaction safety with high-tech solutions such as: applying strong authentication technology; using AI and Machine Learning to detect fraud in transactions; improving data security standards according to PCI DSS and ISO 27001.

As a bank serving mainly rural areas and small businesses, Agribank has been actively coordinating with many agencies and units to implement practical solutions to raise awareness and train users by organizing digital financial education programs for people; instructing small businesses on the benefits and how to use digital payments; implementing communication campaigns to encourage the use of electronic payments, etc.

In its development orientation, Agribank will devote resources to developing synchronous, modern, seamless, and transparent payment systems to provide safe, instant payment services at reasonable costs, meeting the payment needs of people, businesses, agencies, and organizations and being ready to connect cross-border payments.

In addition, the Bank also focuses on developing a digital ecosystem including: establishing a unified and synchronous payment infrastructure capable of integrating and connecting industries and fields; deploying 24/7 payment services; supporting the processing of new payment methods such as QR, e-wallet, mobile money; promoting digital payments in the agricultural sector.

Currently, Agribank's digital ecosystem is increasingly expanding. Specifically, Agribank Plus for individual customers and Agribank Corporate eBanking for businesses provide more than 100 personal utilities and 40 business utilities, meeting all needs from opening accounts, saving deposits, automatic payments, online shopping, booking tickets, delivery, etc.

A pioneer in financial digitalization, Agribank not only expands access to banking services for agriculture and rural areas but also contributes to changing the face of rural finance, promoting the sustainable development of the digital economy.

Through a series of specific actions such as: providing digital banking services, financial support for agricultural digital transformation, building a digital ecosystem, raising awareness of digital finance for people in rural areas, etc., Agribank is joining Vietnamese farmers in entering the digital era.

Not only helping farmers get acquainted with modern digital finance, Agribank is also changing the way the agricultural sector operates, helping farmers access new technologies, improving production and business efficiency. Dozens of domestic and international awards not only demonstrate Agribank's efforts in digital transformation and innovation, but also demonstrate the firm trust of "agricultural" customers in the bank.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/dua-ngan-hang-so-ve-lang-agribank-cung-nong-dan-buoc-vao-ky-nguyen-so-d309721.html