Project profile — Strengthening the People's Credit Fund Network

• Vietnam (100.00%)

• Banking And Financial Services: Education/training in banking and financial services (24081) (70.00%)
• Business And Other Services: Business support services and institutions (25010) (30.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• Nutrition (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

The project aims to improve the efficiency of the Cooperative Bank of Vietnam (CBV) and its People's Credit Fund (PCF) network to supply a range of financial products and services to rural clientele. Développement international Desjardins (DID) will support the CBV and PCFs to revise and implement their development plans. They will also support them in setting up a process to oversee and supervise their risk management tools and internal auditing process. Project activities include: 1) implement business plans, define strategies to professionalize the PCFs and develop tools to help managers, trainers and staff; 2) provide support to the staff in setting up the process to supervise the PCFs, and define the mechanisms to secure operations; 3) conduct a risk analysis of financial operations and loans portfolio; 4) support staff to define the methodology and the tools to assess and develop sustainable financial products and services to meet the needs of clientele; and 5) support training and coaching activities including the transfer of expertise to staff.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) equipping the Cooperative Bank of Vietnam (CBV) to ensure its People's Credit Fund (PCF) network capacity building and improved performance of operations; and (2) enabling the PCF to inspire confidence, supply a range of secure financial products and services to meet the needs of rural clientele, in particular women, while ensuring its financial profitability.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) officially recognized the Internal Audit Toolkits developed and tested by the project. 28 People's Credit Fund (PCFs) and their employees (20 men and 34 women) have applied the integrated toolkit and new processes; (2) fully transferred the E-Learning platform developed to the Cooperative Bank of Vietnam (CBV) in December 2022; (3) the development and deployment of the Management Information System (MIS) providing 22 real-time reports and five dashboards (including Gender dashboards) on the individual financial performance of each PCF. Also the network allowed both CBV and SBV to have a better understanding of the challenges faced by People's Credit Fund and a clearer picture of their financial situation. The Management Information System has been introduced this year to 71 participating People's Credit Fund in nine training sessions performed by CBV. 97.3% of participants stated satisfaction as (five and four on a scale from one to five) with the knowledge that they can use to make better business decisions and manage risk; (4) STEP developed new financial products and services, tools, credit approaches and methodologies to support the PCF in changing their practices, behaviours, and performances. 21 PCFs have been using the Loan Application Form developed by STEP as the tool to practise the new cash flow-based methodology. With 3,289 loans disbursed this year to 1,412 women and 1,877 mean, estimate shows around 12,000 people have benefited from access to credit for their family businesses; (5) the introduction of E-Banking has attracted new members. 675 PCFs (close to 58% of all 1148 PCFs in the network) are using the Cooperative Bank of Vietnam’s E-Banking system developed by STEP, and an average of 40,000 transactions per month are now carried out by PCF members; (6) Co-op Smart - a new educational App for PCF members, has been online since March 2023, providing financial literacy and entrepreneurship knowledge. As of March 31, 2023, 514 people subscribed, among whom57% women; and (7) 3,510 people (1,187 women, 2,323 men) received agricultural advice, 2083 people (949 women, 1,134 men) received environmental consultations and 4908 people (3,000 women and 1,908 men) received advice on the financial health of their business.

• Proactive disclosure