That is the information provided by VPBank (HOSE: VPB) during an online meeting with investors last weekend.
X2 CASA
Building on the CASA platform, the retail banking segment of VPBank aims to double its outstanding growth in 2023 compared to 2022, contributing more than half of the total CASA scale. To achieve this target, VPBank will further deepen its customer segmentation strategy, focusing on the AF segment with the Diamond line and the MAF segment with the Prime line. Specifically, in the sub-segments, VPBank will continue to build tailor-made financial products, services, and solutions to meet the specific needs of customers in each segment.
In addition, the attractive savings account – a product that has gained notoriety and significantly contributed to CASA growth in 2023 – will be fine-tuned by VPBank to attract more customers in 2024.
Furthermore, the bank will continue to enhance the features of the POS and QR Code payment platforms, in order to increase its competitive advantage in the comprehensive payment solutions market for individual customers, SMEs, and large corporate customers, thus attracting more CASA from an expanding customer base.
Meanwhile, with a strong capital base consolidated after the capital divestment deal with SMBC, which helped VPBank become the second-largest bank in terms of capital ownership, the bank is well-positioned to achieve its CASA goal set for 2024.
Furthermore, the FDI customer segment, which was tapped in 2023 to capitalize on the high inflows of FDI into Vietnam in recent years, will serve as a new driving force to diversify VPBank’s customer base and optimize revenue. Leveraging its retail banking strength, VPBank is now capable of meeting the diverse needs of individual customers, including the employees of many existing and potential FDI enterprises, such as payment needs, consumer loans, term deposits, etc.
Building a solid CASA foundation
In 2023, with the global economic crisis and difficulties in Vietnam’s domestic economy, all segments of the bank’s customer base were affected. Nevertheless, VPBank’s customer deposits in 2023 still grew by 42.5%, a rate four times higher than the market average, accounting for about 74% of the bank’s total deposit structure.
Notably, the individual customer segment, which was most affected by unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, achieved outstanding growth with a nearly 75% increase (6.6 times higher than the market average) in deposits.
CASA, in particular, emerged as a highlight in deposit activities, with a scale of VND 78.2 trillion, a 33% increase compared to the end of 2022, with individual customers accounting for 61% of the total. The improvement in CASA balance over each quarter contributed to raising VPBank’s CASA ratio in its deposit structure to 17.6% at the end of Q4 2023.
The individual customer segment, leading the way, made a significant contribution with a CASA balance of VND 47 trillion at the end of 2023, doubling the figure in 2022.
In reality, the goal of CASA growth has always been set by VPBank in recent years. High CASA is seen as one of the factors supporting banks in reducing funding costs and improving net interest margin (NIM).
However, attracting CASA deposits is not an easy task for any bank, including VPBank, especially in the current low-interest-rate environment.
The advantage of digitalization, pioneering in payment solutions and increasing the number of users on digital platforms, combined with a comprehensive segmentation strategy tailored to each customer segment, has enabled VPBank to stand out in attracting non-term deposits.
A clear indication of this advantage is that 98% of customer transactions at VPBank are currently conducted through digital channels, with only 2% of transactions taking place at the counter. In particular, VPBank’s digital banking platform, VPBank NEO, attracted over 3.2 million customers in 2023. Over 400 million transactions (79% of which were savings deposits) were conducted on the VPBank NEO platform, a growth of over 55% compared to 2022.
Additionally, VPBank was the only bank to launch full payment features on all platforms, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Garmin Pay.
Motivation also comes from the “revolutionary” customer base within the VPBank ecosystem, which includes over 30 million people. In particular, the individual customer segment recorded an additional 4 million customers compared to the end of 2022.
The bank’s leadership stated that with its outstanding technology platform and large customer base, VPBank will continue to show strong growth in CASA in 2024.
