The investment bank plans to submit an application for the digital banking licence this year. Credit: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

GIB Global Investment Digital Bank, headquartered in Hong Kong, is partnering with a Vietnamese telco firm Vimo and local payments provider Gpay to bid for digital banking licence in Vietnam.

The investment bank plans to submit an application for the same this year.

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In Vietnam, fintech firms seeking to provide digital banking services must be offshoots of legacy banks and financial institutions to get a digital banking licence.

GIB aims to set up a digital ecosystem anchored by various services with a bank.

Plans are on to gradually expand through offshoots of ancillary services including P2P lending, credit scoring, insurance, as well as asset management.

GIB chief of digital global banking Norman Wong said that the goal is to drive financial inclusion for the youth of South-East Asia.

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Wong noted: “This is the model pioneered by the Chinese fintech giants Tencent and Alibaba, and is one that makes sense to us as a financial institution in order to expand our reach.

“It’s a challenging one, but as mentioned, we are bullish on prospects.”

GIB did not reveal the name of the financial institution partner in their consortium.

The South-East Asia region from Singapore to Malaysia has been working on deepening its digital game lately. Singapore has already started awarding digital banking licences, while Malaysia is expected to do the same next year.

Earlier this month, Singapore-based fintech DigibankASIA secured the licence to operate a digital bank in the Philippines.

Also recently, Malaysian conglomerate Sunway unveiled plans to apply for a digital banking licence as it seeks to expand to the fintech sector.

Wong added: “Vietnam’s young, digitally savvy population is fast growing and showing huge demand for digital financial and banking services.

“GIB Global Investment Digital Bank’s review of the fintech landscape showed that the use of e-commerce apps accelerated during the pandemic, as well as digital payments which jumped 70% in the first quarter of 2020. This tells us that there’s tremendous potential.”