Techcombank ushers in a new era of AI-powered banking

Techcombank’s first-ever Keynote event, entitled “Pioneering Innovation: Reaching for New Heights”, was held on June 28 in Hanoi, showcasing the bank’s most innovative new solutions for individual, business, and corporate customers and highlighting how it is harnessing the power of data and AI to create meaningful experiences for customers and deliver unprecedented growth.

Kicking off the event, CEO Jens Lottner highlighted the investment made by Techcombank over the first three years of its 2021-2025 transformation plan in the areas of Digital, Data, and Talent. This investment has allowed the bank to create unprecedented value for customers and release a number of first-in-the-market innovations. Techcombank has broadly applied data analysis and AI across the bank, and most major systems have been transitioned to the cloud. This puts Techcombank approximately three years ahead of its competitors in Vietnam and enables the bank to harness the power of data and AI to drive unique business outcomes and unparalleled customer-centricity.

“This year we have accelerated our drive towards leveraging our digital platforms and new data and AI capabilities to create more hyper-personalized experiences for our customers and grow our business faster and more profitably than any other bank in Vietnam,” Mr. Lottner said. “We are now redefining banking in Vietnam with our product innovations and personalized experiences.”

Techcombank's technology use, customer focus, and strong performance have earned it numerous international awards over the past year. It was named “Best Bank in Vietnam 2024” by Global Finance and Finance Asia, and ranked #1 by customers in a Forbes Magazine survey.

Redefining banking with hyper-personalized experiences

During the Techcombank Keynote, Mr. Pranav Seth, Chief Digital Officer, highlighted the bank’s newest innovations that are helping create hyper-personalized experiences for customers through the bank’s award-winning digital banking platforms.

The Techcombank Mobile app helps customers enhance financial awareness with personalized advice and insights, enabling enjoyment of their money and future savings. Since launch, over 52 million personalized pieces of advice have been delivered to more than 4 million customers. In 2023, AI and machine learning provided over 100 million personalized insight views.

Techcombank’s new loyalty ecosystem offers rewards and experiences tailored to individual customers’ preferences and lifestyles. It is already one of the largest and most diverse loyalty programs in Vietnam’s banking industry, encompassing over 19,000 points of sale with over 300 brands, where customers can earn reward points. The bank currently has over 8.5 million customers in its loyalty ecosystem, with around 4 million customers actively earning points each month.

Techcombank is seeing significant business value from personalized customer experiences, with a 700 per cent increase in conversion rates for specific marketing campaigns, a 21 per cent improvement in credit card acquisition rates, and a 13 per cent rise in new customer activation rates.

Innovative solutions to cater to all customers’ needs

C-Cash, a first-of-its-kind corporate treasury management solution in partnership with Kyriba, was introduced during the event by Mr. Phung Quang Hung, Head of the Corporate and Institutional Banking Group.

Initially piloted in 2023, C-Cash is being rolled out to all corporate customers in 2024 to elevate treasury management. It provides a holistic 360˚ view of financial positions across multiple bank accounts, allowing CFOs to make optimal decisions, enhance efficiency, optimize costs and yields, and improve working capital.

Meanwhile, Techcombank Merchant, the bank’s all-in-one banking solution for merchant customers, was highlighted by Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Chief Retail Banking Group Officer.

This comprehensive suite of offerings empowers merchants to grow their businesses with integrated smart payment solutions, automated earning opportunities, easy access to credit, an attractive loyalty program, and supplementary beyond-banking services. These tools help optimize operations, enhance financial flexibility, and foster sustainable growth.

Over 600,000 merchants now use Techcombank’s merchant solutions, contributing to a 20 per cent increase in the bank’s CASA balances.

Pioneering differentiated wealth solutions

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Minh, Chairman of Techcom Securities (TCBS), explained how TCBS has become the leading securities company in Vietnam by pioneering the “Wealthtech strategy”. Under this strategy, TCBS has developed the TCInvest super app and a suite of innovative digital-led wealth management solutions.

Today, TCBS serves around 1 million customers and holds the #1 spot in terms of market share among bank-owned equity brokerages on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, and is in the top 3 overall.

In the first quarter of this year, 31,187 customers opened a new TCBS account through the TCInvest app, and the app averaged over 14.8 million visits each month. Through the app, customers can easily and securely trade securities, bonds, funds, derivatives, and other asset classes 100 per cent online and at the touch of a button.

TCBS delivered strong profit growth of approximately 40 per cent per annum between 2013 and 2023, while operating costs have been increasingly optimized thanks to investment in technology infrastructure.

Harnessing the power of data and AI

Supported by a workforce that includes over 1,800 data scientists, analysts, engineers, and IT-related staff, Techcombank is setting the standard and defining the future of banking by offering meaningful and engaging experiences to customers as it transforms into a bank powered by data and AI. Mr. Santhosh Mahendiran, Techcombank’s Chief Data & Analytics Officer, said the bank’s use of advanced data analytics, generative AI, and large language models (LLMs) underpins its ability to provide new personalized customer experiences to millions of individual customers.

The bank’s integrated data in the “data lake” from over 50 of the bank’s systems is linked with Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) data analytics capabilities to create a bank-wide “data brain”. This data brain is linked to its cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides a centralized 360˚ view of all customer information to empower relationship managers and ensure seamless online and offline customer journeys.

Techcombank is also experimenting with how generative AI can build the next level of innovation for itself and its customers. Partnerships with some of the world’s leading technology companies - Adobe, AWS, Kyriba, and Salesforce - are playing a crucial role in Techcombank’s digital transformation and the creation of new personalized customer experiences.

“AWS is proud to be part of Techcombank’s digital transformation journey, enabling the bank to access services, AI capabilities, infrastructure, and robust security they need to leverage generative AI at scale and drive innovation, while remaining cost-effective,” said Mr. Eric Yeo, Vietnam Country Manager at AWS.

“Today’s banking customers demand seamless, tailored experiences across multiple touchpoints, whether digital or in-branch,” said Mr. Simon Dale, Vice President of Adobe Asia. “Adobe is proud to have been Techcombank’s partner since 2022, empowering them to deliver hyper-personalized banking experiences in real-time through our Adobe Experience Cloud and Real-Time Customer Data Platform.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Techcombank on its transformation journey with data and AI to better serve its customers and build an empowered workforce,” said Mr. Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce ASEAN. “Unified company data from across systems is critical for AI to deliver trusted and meaningful outputs that can be actioned.”

“Our unique combination of advanced data capabilities, state-of-the-art digital infrastructure, and top-tier talent enables a growth strategy that is very hard to replicate,” said Mr. Lottner in bringing the first-ever Techcombank Keynote to a close. “With the strong support of our partners and shareholders, we have built one of the best banking platforms in Asia. We are now ready to go to the next level, to compete and win over customers to realize our vision, ‘Change Banking, Change Lives’.”