A transaction office of VPBank. Viet Nam will implement comprehensive measures to ease access to banking services. — Photo vpbank.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam will implement comprehensive measures to ease businesses and people's access to banking services, according to a project newly approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The scheme states that by 2020, the ratio of nationwide adults who have payment accounts at banks is expected to reach 70 per cent, and there will be at least 20 bank branches or transaction offices per every 100,000 people.

Also by that time, about 35-40 per cent of adults in rural areas are set to have savings deposited at credit institutions, and some 50-60 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be borrowing money from credit institutions.

The scheme sets forth the following measures for the country to reach the target:

- Completing policies and creating an advantageous environment for diversified developments of banking products and services; cleaning up the financial situation of credit institutions while they are restructured.

- Expanding service networks of credit institutions and attaching special importance to enhancing operational efficiency of the Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies; working out a reasonable roadmap for development of people's credit funds and micro-finance organisations.

- Accelerating the application of information and telecommunication technology so that banks can better serve residents in rural and remote areas.

- Enhancing capacity of credit institutions in providing services to SMEs.

- Assisting credit institutions to get more adequate information about customers to better credit quality.

- Speeding up the promotion of banking products and services to people in rural and remote areas, and intensifying connections between banks and enterprises.

- Carrying out support solutions such as speeding up investments in rural infrastructure in line with national programmes on poverty reduction, production stimulation and living standard improvement – bases for increasing people's demand for banking services.

There will also be solutions to boost operations of credit guarantee funds for SMEs, and simplify procedures for people and businesses that are involved in mortgaging activities.

Phuc said the country must implement the measures while respecting market rules, and this process is to be integrated with the reorganisation of the credit institution system, which needs secure, healthy and sustained development. — VNS