The award is recognition of the role and efforts of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in accompanying the development of the business community and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular.

On 7 September 2023 in Singapore, within the 17th “Best Financial Institution Awards” program organized by Alpha Southeast Asia, BIDV was honored as the “Best SME Bank in Vietnam”. This is the 6th consecutive year BIDV has been honored with the award from the Alpha Southeast Asia.

At the award ceremony, Mr. Siddiq Bazarwala - Editor-in-Chief of the Alpha Southeast Asia, said: "In recent years, BIDV has embarked on implementing diverse digital solutions, supporting SMEs to reduce costs and increase business efficiency. BIDV’s relentless efforts for the SMEs continue to affirm the bank’s position as the best bank in Vietnam. BIDV has become the preferred banking partner for growing number of SMEs in Vietnam".

Mrs. Pham Thi Van Khanh - Head of BIDV Corporate Banking Department, said: "The award is recognition of BIDV’s efforts and outstanding achievements in accompanying SMEs through the provision of a comprehensive and flexible ecosystem of digital products and services which fully meet the needs of customers".

BIDV defines SMEs as an important customer segment in its business strategy. Therefore, the bank always prioritizes resources to support and facilitate SMEs’ business development, competitiveness and product quality improvement. Since the early days of 2023, BIDV has actively launched credit packages totaling over VND280 trillion with interest rate lowered by 0.5-2%/year, to support businesses in recovering, maintaining and developing business activities.

In addition, businesses have enjoyed service fee waiver and reduction under the bank’s preferential programs such as: The DigiUp program; The Trade Booming program with support in exchange rates, international money transfer fee waiver for import-export businesses, etc. BIDV also actively promotes digitalization of the supply chain financing, launching the online SCF platform which helps increase processing speed, improve experience, and promptly meet customers’ capital demand. At the same time, BIDV has launched credit products by sector and field with streamlined processes and competitive mechanisms to promote industry credit development such as loan packages for businesses in the pharmaceutical industry, electrical equipment manufacturing, construction and assembly.

With “customer-centric, technology-driven” approach, BIDV always pioneers innovation to lead the digital transformation in the financial sector; providing a comprehensive digital banking ecosystem with outstanding features and utilities. The Bank has implemented various outstanding digitalization programs to help improve customer experience such as: Online lending, BIDV iBank, BIDV iConnect... Especially, BIDV SMEasy digital platform (https://smeasy.bidv.com.vn) is designed as one-stop shop that provides consistent financial and non-financial solutions for customers, increasing internal resources, and improving financial health and competitiveness for SMEs. The platform also offers an interface designed specifically for female entrepreneurs with the message “Shining with women-owned SMEs”.

With comprehensive solutions, BIDV has achieved many impressive results in accompanying SMEs on their development journey. By 31 August 2023, BIDV has more than 371,000 SME customers with outstanding loan to this segment accounting for 42% of total corporate loans, an increase of 7.5% year-on-year. These achievements continue to affirm the bank’s leading position in SME segment in Vietnam market.