The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) held an online system-wide conference on practising thrift and combating waste, with Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung directing the sector to move beyond traditional cost-cutting and instead prioritise structural measures that save time and labour and lift productivity. The approach centres on organisational redesign, process improvements and stronger use of technology and digital workflows, including online public services and electronic identification, while avoiding formalistic or extreme savings that could undermine work quality or operational safety. SBV’s Finance and Accounting Department reported 2025 results including a major streamlining of the SBV network, merging 63 branches into 15 regional branches, cutting the number of units from 25 to 20, reducing service units from seven to five, and shrinking the number of departments from 480 to 212 (a 56% reduction), alongside exit arrangements for 1,588 staff. Administrative reform and digitalisation steps included simplifying 269 of 298 administrative procedures (90.3%), reducing processing time by 1,921 days (31.7%) and 1,016 working days (35.1%), and an estimated 31.5% reduction in compliance costs; use of the electronic document management system rose, with incoming electronic documents up 38% and outgoing up 30.93% year on year. The update also cited tight expenditure controls across all 25 units, more active review and redeployment of public assets with reduced non-essential procurement, full disbursement of the public investment plan allocated by the Prime Minister, and state-budget remittances exceeding the assigned estimate. For 2026, SBV indicated the banking sector will continue to refine policy mechanisms, tighten financial and asset management, accelerate administrative reform and digital transformation, set specific unit-level savings targets, and step up inspection and enforcement, linking savings to productivity, operating effectiveness and governance quality over 2026–2030.
State Bank of Vietnam 2026-04-02
State Bank of Vietnam sets productivity and digital transformation as the core of its 2026 thrift and anti-waste drive
The State Bank of Vietnam held a system-wide conference on practising thrift and combating waste, emphasising structural efficiency, organisational redesign and digitalisation over traditional cost-cutting. It reported 2025 streamlining, including consolidation of branches and departments, simplified procedures, expanded electronic document management and tighter expenditure controls. For 2026, it plans to refine policy mechanisms, strengthen financial and asset management, accelerate administrative and digital reforms, and link savings targets to productivity and governance quality through 2030.