Visa spotlights B2B payment digitization opportunities in Vietnam
04/24/2024
Visa, a global leader in payments, held its annual Visa Commercial Solutions Client Forum, a thought leadership platform for banks, fintechs, and corporates to learn the latest in commercial money movement trends. The theme for this year, “Unlocking Commercial Payments in the Digital Age”, spotlighted prevalent challenges, trends and opportunities for commercial issuers. These include customer acquisition, using data-driven insights in creating Card Value Propositions (CVP), identifying new collaboration opportunities with NGOs, and identifying financing opportunities across the supply chain for different industries.
Globally, B2B payments continue to lag behind consumer-to-business payments in digitization and efficiency. The potential for digitizing B2B payments in the Asia Pacific region, excluding domestic flows of Greater China, represents an opportunity valued at US$41 trillion, seven times larger than that in the consumer sector1. While there remains a digitization gap for many businesses in Vietnam, many are setting their sights on higher ambitions. A third (33%) of Vietnamese businesses who were surveyed – both SMBs and large enterprises – are actively prioritizing digitization to increase efficiency.
Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) offer a significant opportunity for banks, fintechs, and the payments industry – given the market size of SMBs and the role that they play in Vietnam. The Ministry of Planning and Investment in Vietnam estimates that more than 97% of the 900,000 operational businesses in Vietnam are SMBs, employing more than five million people and contributing up to 45% of the national GDP.
Driving digitization of payments in the B2B space could have a significant impact in supporting Vietnam’s overall economic growth and propel Vietnam on its digital and financial inclusion journey – as seen in Visa’s latest data surveying SMBs in Vietnam. 68% of SMBs that adopted card payments for business transactions saw a significant increase in turnover in comparison to their pre-adoption performance, while 62% of SMBs were influenced by the speed and security of digital payments experience and began using more digital payments in their personal lives2.
Ms. Dung Dang, Visa Country Manager for Vietnam and Laos, said: "Innovation is key to the future of payments, and Visa is driving innovation and enabling growth for businesses, consumers and communities in Vietnam by working to make payments seamless, reliable and secure. This forum is one of Visa’s efforts to demonstrate its commitment to partnering with businesses on their journey toward prosperity through technology and the transformative power of digital commerce.”
Mr. Gareth Parrington, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions at Visa Regional Southeast Asia, said: “At Visa, we want to redefine B2B payments and modernize B2B payment flows. There is a huge opportunity for banks to support businesses in Vietnam throughout the entire payments journey, from providing digital onboarding capabilities, to using alternative data for credit assessment for SMBs, and offering an end-to-end solution for commercial money movement flows. Visa offers a comprehensive suite of money movement solutions to support businesses such as commercial cards, money movement services, and innovative payment technologies. Our goal is to revolutionize payments whilst creating a convenient, reliable, and secure payments experience.”
The Visa Commercial Solutions Client Forum also marks the launching ceremony of VNPAYB2B, a product of VNPAY, as the first Business Payment Solution Provider (BPSP) Platform in Vietnam enabled by Visa to support acceptance infrastructure for B2B payments. BPSPs enable businesses to make payment to non-card accepting suppliers using their Visa commercial cards, thereby allowing them to leverage early settlement discounts, improve cash flow and have greater control over payments with minimum effort by digitized processes and utilising data.
In addition, Visa's active role in developing digital solutions is reflected in its ongoing investments in accelerating digital enablement of underserved SMBs. The recent announcement of a $100-million investment via the Visa Foundation in ASEAN underscores Visa's commitment to empowering businesses and fostering regional digital awareness.
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1 Source: Visa CMS Market Sizing Study 2024
2 AP SMB Survey 2023 by Visa & Clear Ideas Pte Ltd., Vietnam SMBs Base (n=511)
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. We believe economies that include everyone uplifts everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.