Vietnam’s OCB and Backbase Partner for Omnichannel Banking Modernization

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 in a signing ceremony on 20 July 2023. 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. This project implementation will be led by Backbase’s partner SmartOSC.

OCB is the top private bank in Vietnam 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.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, CEO, OCB, said “As a pioneer bank of digital transformation in general and omnichannel banking in particular, 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. With the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform (EBP) based on three main factors including: 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. OCB expects to accelerate customer acquisition growth and double its retail banking monthly active users in the first year of the platform launch, and goal to grow to 10 million monthly active users in 5 years of the launch.”

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. he 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 micro services 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!” Mr. 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
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)
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.

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.