GoBear, Asia’s first and only metasearch engine for insurance and banking products, and FE Credit, the largest lender in Viet Nam’s consumer finance market, have signed a deal to drive greater financial inclusion for Vietnamese people.

Under the partnership, GoBear Vietnam will synergise with FE Credit’s award-winning end-to-end digital lending mobile app $NAP.

The new GoBear powered by FE Credit app will enable an entirely digital application process, streamlining the user journey from comparison to application, and loan pre-approval within 15 minutes.

This will bring better access to unsecured loans to millions of Vietnamese who do not have banking accounts.

The app uses new technologies including facial recognition, AI algorithms, optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR), voice-ased virtual assistant, speech to text, eSignature and more, to enable the lender to extend credit to unbanked customers while keeping risk in check.

Kalidas Ghose, vice chairman and CEO of FE Credit, said “As Viet Nam’s economy continues to thrive, we see many opportunities to collaborate with financial technology companies to accelerate financial inclusion for the country.”

Bao Nguyen, country director of GoBear Vietnam, said: "Improving financial inclusion and serving the unbanked is very important in an emerging market like Viet Nam. They have limited access to mainstream financial services, which is a significant problem as it can substantially restrict the flow of capital to would-be entrepreneurs and small businesses.

“With the new GoBear powered by FE Credit app, I believe we can help to improve financial accessibility for our users.”

The app is available for download on the Google Play store and will be available soon on the Apple’s App Store.

Since its entry in Viet Nam in December 2016 with eight products — comparison of credit cards, personal loans, travel insurance, fixed deposits, bank accounts, home loan, home equity loan and car loan, GoBear Vietnam has received more than 10 million visitors on its website www.gobear.com/vn. — VNS