Vietnam’s OCB Partners Backbase to Leapfrog Omnichannel Banking Modernization & Personalization

Ho Chi Minh, July 21, 2023 — Backbase, the global leader in Engagement Banking today announced that Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) has chosen Backbase to power its omnichannel banking modernization. OCB’s goal is to create a personalized digital banking system for each customer across all channels, by fully digitizing every customer journey and touchpoint to provide seamless services via mobile applications and computer platforms. With the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform (EBP), the bank expects to double its retail banking monthly active users in the first year of the platform launch and reach 10 million monthly active users by the fifth year of the launch. This project implementation will be led by Backbase’s partner SmartOSC.

OCB is the top private bank in Vietnam, ranked first in terms of profit growth rate and third in terms of return on capital efficiency and is Backbase’s fifth customer in Vietnam.

In 2022, OCB expanded OCB OMNI to more than 200 products, services, and utilities. OCB OMNI users increased more than 1.7 times, while the number of transactions increased by more than 200% compared to 2021. OCB’s rate of deposit through digital channels also increased by 178% over the same period. Retail banking remains highly competitive with high expectations to generate positive ROE and it is imperative for OCB to create continuous and incremental impact for OCB OMNI.

“Our strategy is to create a unified customer lifecycle first in the retail banking line of business and swiftly expand to the business banking line of business, which will keep OCB ahead of our competition in Vietnam,” Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, CEO, OCB, said. "We are investing in Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform to accelerate customer acquisition growth, with the goal of 2 million consumers in the first year after go-live. With the adopt and build approach that is unique to the Engagement Banking Platform, it meets our ambition to go-to-market in 6 months.”

“In the same vein, to navigate tomorrow’s complex retail banking environment, we need to continuously reimagine, own, and execute unique customer journeys and experiences to create sustainable omnichannel differentiation. The Engagement Banking Platform provides that scalability with freedom and control and the strategic long-term value to reduce our cost to serve,” continues Tung.

OCB's previous in-house attempt lacked scalability, speed to market, and failed to meet expectations, posing a threat to the bank's position as a fast-growing and customer-centric institution. With the implementation of Backbase's EBP, OCB now has the ability to adopt and build, aligning with its modern banking culture and customer-centric approach. This investment was driven by three key considerations: a six-month go-live timeline, full control over building, owning, and customizing differentiated upstream and downstream requirements, and local support for implementation and future project needs. Moreover, the investment aligns with OCB's business model and management values of low risk, efficiency, safety, and growth.

“Innovative banks with high digital maturity like OCB endeavor to take the driver’s seat to deliver their own unique omnichannel digital banking proposition. The beauty in adopting and building is that banks do not need to worry about the underlying business rules, orchestration of banking services, hygiene security and compliance requirements, and the essential microservices and journeys that are already proven to work across the lines of business and channels they want to re-architect. On day one, banks could start building on top of the platform to customize journeys and experience for specific consumer segments, products, and channels, which is the reason that go-live for such an extensive omnichannel platform can be within 6 months.” Riddhi Dutta, Regional Vice President, Asia, Backbase said.

SmartOSC will assist OCB in integrating the Engagement Banking Platform, also referred to as the Digital Banking Omnichannel Platform, into its existing records systems, while also addressing OCB's initial localization requirements, by leveraging their extensive experience and market-leading solutions, Furthermore, SmartOSC will develop OCB's Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, and Employee App.

“We are excited to collaborate with OCB and Backbase at this pivotal time in banking. Having the ability to quickly adapt to evolving customer needs is essential in today’s digital landscape. This is what makes this collaboration so important!” Le Mai Anh, Vice Chairman of SmartOSC said. “We are honored to work together to modernize omnichannel banking using the Engagement Banking Platform showcasing the best that innovation and customer-centricity have to offer. It is with great confidence that we deliver this project on time and support OCB’s mission of putting customer needs first by delivering high-quality products and services without disruption."

The Backbase Engagement Banking Platform was recognized as a leader earlier this year by industry research analysts at Celent and Omdia.

Backbase is on a mission to re-architect banking around the customer.

Backbase created the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform – a unified platform with the customer at the center, empowering banks to accelerate their digital transformation. From customer onboarding, to servicing, loyalty, and loan origination, our single platform — open and frictionless, with ready-to-go apps — improves every aspect of the customer experience. Built from the ground up with the customer at the heart, our Engagement Banking Platform easily plugs into existing core banking systems and comes pre-integrated with the latest fintechs so financial institutions can innovate at scale.

Industry analysts Gartner, Omdia, and IDC continuously recognize Backbase’s category leadership position. Over 120 financials around the world have embraced the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. In APAC, the customers we serve include ABBANK, BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, EastWest Bank, HDFC, IDFC First, JudoBank, Techcombank, TPBank, and UBank.

Backbase is a privately funded fintech company, founded in 2003 in Amsterdam (Global HQ), with regional offices in Singapore (APAC HQ), Atlanta (Americas HQ), and operations in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Latin America, and the UK.

Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) was established on 10 June 1996. After more than 27 years of operation and development, OCB currently has more than 200 business units spread across all regions and key economic centers across the country.

OCB was recognized by the State Bank as one of the first three banks to complete risk management items according to the Basel II international standards by the end of 2018. Moody's Investors Service, one of the three most prestigious credit rating agencies in the world, increased Counterparty Risk Assessment (CRA) and Counterparty Risk Rating (CRR) to Ba3 in July 2019. This is the highest-ranking level in Vietnam today. Rated as the leading bank in Vietnam in terms of operational efficiency with sustainable growth potential, OCB has created confidence for Aozora Bank - one of the most efficient banks in Japan, to invest 15% share capital of OCB and become a long-term strategic partner.

OCB has gradually risen to the top of the group of private banks in Vietnam according to three criteria: growth rate, safety and efficiency. Not only operational efficiency and profit, OCB always actively controls costs, synchronously implements cost-optimizing solutions to improve business efficiency, this is the Bank's direction throughout. OCB's equity has now increased by nearly 8 times, profit by more than 16 times and total assets by 12 times. Thereby, OCB became a joint stock commercial bank holding the No. 1 position in terms of profit growth rate and No. 3 in terms of return on capital efficiency.

With 18 years in operation, SmartOSC is an industry-leading digital transformation agency of 1000+ experts across countries including Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, the US and the UK. Deep experience across most enterprise platforms and technology stacks has made SmartOSC a trusted partner for leading brands and financial institutions worldwide.

SmartOSC Fintech provides top-tier solutions and caters to tailor-made requirements for banks and financial institutions worldwide by leveraging the latest technologies. This capability means banks can reduce operating costs, save implementation time and ensure security with SmartOSC Fintech suite.

Being recognized as a leading customer-centric eCommerce partner at The Global Economics Awards 2023, SmartOSC is able to represent its commitment to helping clients to succeed in an ever-changing world.

Backbase
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Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank
[email protected]

SmartOSC
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