Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has launched amobile banking service designed to improve the access of disadvantaged people.

Theproject, which is supported by the Australian Government’s BusinessPartnerships Platform, aims to increase access to a full range of financialservices for low-income households, especially women-led micro-enterprises thatlack access to traditional banking services.

Theproject will be implemented in co-operation between VBSP, Mastercard and theAsian Foundation over three years.

Improvingaccess to financial services is increasingly recognised as key to creatinggreater economic opportunities for the poor. Unfortunately, in addition tocredit, abour two-thirds of Vietnamese people, particularly in rural areas, aredisconnected from other formal banking services. This is partly due to the highcost of operating bank branches in remote areas where small frequenttransactions are the norm.

Vietnamhas undergone a rapid evolution in information and communications technologywith telecommunications networks covering almost the entire country and adultsowning mobile phones. However, the use of mobile technology for financialtransactions is relatively rare and cash transactions remain pervasive.

“Theproject will help poor and near-poor households and other social policybeneficiaries to access sustainable and effective financial services,contributing to alleviating poverty and connecting the poor with the economy,”said Hoang Minh Te, VBSP Deputy Director.

Hesaid applying new technology is in line with the Government’s socio-economicdevelopment strategy for the 2011-20 period. This will also be one of tools todiversify the bank’s products and services as well as increasing its efficiencyin order to serve an increasing number of customers.

VBSPwill send account-related information via SMS texts to clients, thus improvingtransparency and reducing delinquency rates. The bank will pilot mobile bankingfor customers to make its transaction procedures automatic.

“Wewant to make a real difference in reducing powerty and ensuring that poorpeople have access to financial system. Lessons drawn from other markets haveshown that digital payments are cheaper, more efficient and ultimately moresustainable,” said Arn Vogels, chief representative of Mastercard Indochina.

Beinga specialised and the biggest State-owned financial institution, the bank hasprovided financial services, especially loans to help reduce poverty andachieve social targets effectively.

VBSP’sstrength is a nationwide network of 63 branches, 629 transaction offices,nearly 200,000 savings and credit groups in more than 11,000 communes.

Itserves nearly seven million customers with total outstanding loans of 157trillion VND. Nearly 80 percent of the debtors live in rural and remoteareas.-VNA