“Digital banking is becoming a hot trend,” Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCM City Branch, told a conference on developing human resources for the finance- banking industry in the 4.0 era held at Hoa Sen University on August 6.

“The industry will continue to grow and [with it] demand for human resource,” he said.

Nguyen Duy Tuan, manager of banking and financial services at Navigos Search, a provider of executive search services, said: “Digital banking is only part of digital adoption in the industry, which requires new job positions such as business analysts and internal auditors.”

People working in business analysis, for instance, have to have knowledge of banking and IT, and data analysis skills, but there are not many educational institutions that train them comprehensively, he said.

“We have difficulty finding such candidates. Technology has pushed up recruitment demand and created a race salary. Companies need to find ways to keep talent while controlling labour costs,” he said.

Nguyen Thi To Uyen, HR director at Sacombank, said banks have had to change their method of operation and trading thanks to technology.

“Technology helps bank staff reduce manual tasks such as data entry. They spend this time on developing the market and strategies for serving their customers.”

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy head of the International Economic Research and Training Institute, said the finance stream still attracts many students, but most graduates only meet 20-25 percent of banks’ requirements.

They lack the required “attitude” and communication, teamwork and English skills, he said.

“Ethics also is vital. English is not enough. People working in the industry need to communicate in other foreign languages.”

They also should have knowledge about information security, he said.

Banks say they need to retrain new employees to meet job requirements, he added.

Nguyen Hai Trieu, business development manager at HSBC Bank Vietnam Ltd, said new employees require a half or one year to get familiar with using the technological systems in his bank.

“Many do not know a lot about other technologies except Microsoft Excel.”

Students should be taught about technology at university, he added.

Dr Nguyen Ngoc Vu, deputy rector of Hoa Sen University, said universities including his university do use IT to enable their students to learn about it.

“It is important to teach students how to adapt to any working environment quickly.”

Teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and creativity are skills his university focuses on, he added.

Tuan said by 2025 the finance industry would account for 5 percent of HCM City’s total human resource requirements.

In 2020-2025 the industry’s requirement for middle- and senior-level staff would increase by 20 percent a year, he added.

The event was organised in cooperation with Saigon Times newspaper.-VNS