Hitachi Teams Up with VietCredit to Automate Loan Process in Vietnam

Hitachi is teaming up with the VietCredit Finance Company to explore the potential for digital financial services in Vietnam. The companies are specifically hoping to use AI to automate key pieces of the personal loan applications process, allowing the financial institution to turn those applications around more quickly.

To that end, Hitachi and VietCredit will deploy tablet terminals outfitted with an automatic contract system at VietCredit offices. If the initial phase goes well, the program will then expand to office buildings and industrial parks to make the service more accessible.

According to Hitachi and VietCredit, the automatic contract system will drastically reduce processing times for loan applications in Vietnam. The companies note that the demand for loans in Vietnam is increasing, but many of the country’s office procedures still rely on paper documents. Filling out those documents takes a considerable amount of time, and can create more work if those documents are incomplete.

To improve the service, Hitachi will provide AI technology that can predict the chance of a rare event occurring to help screen the risk levels of individual loan applicants. The company also indicated that it will try to improved the service with biometric authentication and voice recognition technology in the future.

Hitachi did not provide any further details about how that technology would be applied, but biometrics would presumably assist with identity verification and enable more secure Know Your Customer procedures. The company has already formed biometrics partnerships with financial institutions outside of Vietnam, with the most notable example being the Barclays Biometric Reader that is built with Hitachi’s finger vein technology.

In the meantime, Vietnam’s financial institutions have displayed a growing interest in biometric authentication. A domestic bank adopted NICE’s voice-based Real-Time Authentication platform back in March, while NEXT Biometrics renewed its smart card partnership with the MK Group.