Speedier service, contented customers: How automation gave VPBank a boost

Up to the neck in paperwork and exhausted—that used to be the norm for employees at VPBank. Back then, most transactions—loan underwriting, customer onboarding, document verification, and internal reporting—were handled manually and were extremely time-consuming.

As a result, employees often had to work overtime to ensure operations remained smooth. But work often snowballed, impacting turnaround times and customer satisfaction.

While this was happening, the bank was in the midst of diversifying its product offerings to stay competitive in the ever-evolving financial landscape.

If operations were not improved, it would handicap business growth and cause further unhappiness among its growing customer base. The bank quickly realized that it would have to implement automation, which would be able to streamline workflows and lighten the workload.

Internal automation system

While most organizations would opt for vendor-provided automation applications, the bank decided to develop its own with the help of UiPath. An internal team—the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) department—was formed to automate work processes.

By owning the development process, automation solutions could be tailored to the bank’s specific needs and existing systems. New automation processes could also be developed more quickly, allowing the bank to remain competitive and attuned to constantly changing business and market needs.

For example, if an automation process was outsourced, it would take three weeks to complete. But internally, the bank could develop the same process 10 times faster.

As of 2024, the bank has implemented more than 300 automation processes, highlighting the success of its internal automation system.

In 2018, our automation journey at VPBank began as a one-man project handling simple data entry tasks. Today, our automation team has evolved to automate and manage complex, long-running processes, marking a dramatic increase in efficiency.

Viet Bui Ngoc, Head of the RPA Department at VPBank

Improved efficiency for happier customers

Time is of the essence in banking. Before adopting RPA, VPBank employees spent countless hours manually collecting and verifying information for loan applications, card transactions, and credit underwriting.

Every customer file required meticulous cross-checking to ensure that all details were complete and consistent—a labor-intensive process that frequently resulted in lengthy backlogs and delayed approvals. This traditional approach not only slowed down service delivery but also strained resources, as employees were tied up with repetitive data entry and complex rule-based tasks.

By automating the cross-checking of loan documents, customer information, transaction details, and the immediate processing of requests on the core banking systems, the bank streamlined its entire workflow and reduced processing times by a factor of 10. This significant improvement translated into cost savings equivalent to 350 full-time employees, even as the number of transactions grew by an average of 30% each year.

Enhanced accuracy and compliance, combined with the freeing up of employees to focus on important tasks, led to a marked boost in overall productivity and an improved customer experience.

RPA has fundamentally transformed the way we operate—enabling us to scale efficiently, improve accuracy, and respond faster to customer needs. More importantly, it laid a strong foundation for our future direction, where advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation will drive even greater agility and innovation across the bank.”

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Chinh, Director of Northern Credit Administration Centre at VPBank

Automation also played a vital role in improving customer satisfaction and experience at VPBank, by speeding up the processing of customer requests.

Previously, all customer requests—including high-risk ones such as increasing credit card spending limits and unlocking accounts—were handled manually by customer service agents. These tasks involved cross-checking information, sending emails to relevant departments for processing, handling, and responding to verification forms, and distributing sales leads.

As the volume of support requests increased each year, the bank had to either increase their workforce or rely on staff working overtime to ensure all customer requests were handled promptly.

By implementing RPA in the handling of customer requests, it has not only reduced the time spent by agents on manual tasks but also shortened the overall processing time, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and experience. Currently, VPBank’s Contact Center 247 operates with over 40 automation processes in parallel, processing an average of 150,000 transactions per month—equivalent to the workload of approximately 19 full-time employees who would otherwise be required to handle these requests.

More importantly, automating these processes eased the burden on call center employees, freeing them up to assist more customers within a shorter timeframe. This, in turn, helped enhance customer satisfaction.

RPA has been instrumental in fostering a culture of continuous improvement at 247, enabling us to consistently identify and optimize business processes to shorten support SLAs and enhance the overall customer experience.”

Nguyen Thi Dung, Head of Contact Center 247 at VPBank

Ahead of the curve

Besides improving workflows and productivity for its core business operations, VPBank also allocated resources to automate processes such as sales and IT service desk operations. Notably, it became the first bank in Vietnam to fully automate its anti-money-laundering compliance programs.

This has contributed to the overall improvement and smooth running of business operations, freeing more than 400 employees to engage in value-added tasks and drive more meaningful business activity as the bank continues to serve its growing customer base.

But VPBank’s innovation does not stop there. Building on its success over the past seven years, the bank plans to integrate AI into its automation framework in 2025. Having assembled a dedicated AI team, the bank plans to trial agentic AI—an AI system that can operate autonomously and make decisions with little to zero intervention by people—to assist customers who are victims of fraud.

The team is working to shorten the time needed to resolve fraudulent transactions. Instead of making customers fill out paperwork, they aim to establish interactive communication methods with them through generative AI to better understand how they can assist.

Going forward, VPBank will continue to digitalize and improve processes to create a resilient, forward-thinking organization that is ready to embrace the challenges of tomorrow.

Leading in innovation isn’t just about improving efficiency—it’s about creating opportunities to shape the digital future of banking. By integrating AI into our automation processes, we’re demonstrating a strategic vision to deliver transformative solutions, keep customers at the heart of everything we do, and create lasting value for the community.

Hoang Thi Thuy Ha, Director of Operational Excellence Center at VPBank