ANZ to reshape saving mindsets

At present, many banks in Vietnam are focusing on retail banking, but struggle to expand corporate banking. What about ANZ?

In every market where we operate, we believe we are one of the frontiers in retail banking and play a role in bringing innovative products to retail banking, in terms of new products and customer services.

We recently won the “Best Retail Bank in Vietnam” 2013 award by the Asian Banker. We focus on affluent customers and we will continue to do so.

So, will you continue to expand retail investment banking in Vietnam?

There are two parts to retail banking. First is individual borrowing and second is investment banking. Regarding the second part, in every market when a country becomes prosperous, people have more money and they need to save money. There are many different saving options, it could be deposits, the stock market or structured investment products.

Vietnam is still emerging, with an increasing number of affluent people. This means we see potential for expanding retail investment banking here. We currently have investment products like structured and dual currency investments. But, there is room for development in terms of bond and mutual fund markets.

People rarely think about investment banking products. Is this a big challenge for ANZ?

Again, Vietnam is an emerging market. It’s our role to educate people on retail investment banking. The most important thing is we need to talk about saving money and investment and underscore the need to have a balance portfolio.

Actually, there is no magic solution to change people’s awareness immediately. We will bring new innovative products to help change customers’ mindset. But it cannot happen over night, it’s a long-term commitment.

ANZ Vietnam last year introduced two investment products Structured Investment Product and Dual Currency Investment. What was the market’s response?

We received very positive responses from our clients. One year ago, Structured Investment Product and Dual Currency Investment accounted for 12 per cent of total individual deposits in ANZ Vietnam. But now, the proportion is 29 per cent, while total individual deposits with ANZ Vietnam is increasing. These numbers can tell us that we have potential here.

Even this market remains small, but the growth is high. The growth of the two investment products gives us a solid confidence in the potential of Vietnam.