HANOI: The banking system is set to take the lead in standardising personal financial consulting in Vietnam, a sector that has yet to develop fully due to the absence of a clear legal framework, experts say.
Deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Region No 2 Branch, Nguyen Duc Lenh, said that financial consulting plays a crucial role in both financial and monetary terms.
“If developed professionally with a team of skilled consultants, the field will be a valuable resource to promote the financial markets and banking activities, particularly in financial inclusion and the effective implementation of monetary and credit policies,” he said.
Lenh pointed out that commercial banks and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) have already taken active and effective steps to support personal financial consulting in recent years.
For instance, as of July 2025, outstanding loans provided by VBSP in Ho Chi Minh City to serve production, business needs and job creation reached nearly 19 trillion dong.
Borrowers received guidance on personal financial management and the effective use of loans, resulting in an almost perfect on-time debt repayment rate and very low bad debts.
Many commercial banks, with extensive customer bases, transparent transaction data and widespread branch networks, have trialled wealth management models offering investment consulting, insurance and financial planning services to VIP clients.
Lenh said that with a comprehensive legal framework and systematic training, banks could become central hubs for personal financial consulting, especially in promoting the State Bank of Vietnam’s “digital literacy” programme to raise financial awareness, particularly in rural areas.
FIDT Investment Consulting and Asset Management JSC Ngo chief executive officer Thanh Huan said that the personal finance consulting market has not yet fully developed in Vietnam.
Most consultants are just selling products to earn commissions but are not closely linked to customers’ long-term goals.
Most of the income of consultants comes from commissions on selling insurance, and cards, making them more like “sales people” rather than “financial advisors”.
Banks can be an important link as professionalise personal financial consulting teams by enhancing human resource training and standardising degrees and specialised certificates.
According to Huan, many commercial banks in Vietnam are currently strongly developing an open banking ecosystem according to the financial group model, which is favourable to applying the overall financial consulting model.
In this model, the bank plays a focal role in planning long-term strategies for customers and then connecting customers to experts specialising in insurance, securities and real estate products, helping customers both achieve financial goals and access suitable products.
Vietnam Financial Consultants Association chairman Dr Le Minh Nghia said that personal finance is still being neglected and not given due attention in Vietnam, which causes an imbalance in the financial markets with consequences such as usury and fraud related to personal finance.
Nghia said that in order to develop sustainable personal financial consulting, the priority is to change the mindset about the financial consulting profession in a legitimate and systematic way.
The profession needs to shift from “introducing and selling products” as currently practised to “comprehensive consulting”.
At the same time, he said, it was necessary to promote financial training activities and raise awareness for all classes of people. — Viet Nam News/ANN
