25 October 2022, Brussels – OpenWay and Timo Digital Bank became the winners of the Vietnam Technology Excellence Award for Payments Software by delivering a smart, savvy customer lifestyle experience with a human touch. Timo and OpenWay were able to launch their award-winning digital banking platform in just 4 months on AWS. Moreover, they showed that digital banking is more than just entering PINs, swiping and authenticating on a little screen.
Timo, whose name is a combination of the letters in the words “time” and “money”, was founded in 2015. It is widely recognized as one of the first banks in Vietnam to offer eKYC services and an early adopter of banking services on a public cloud. Timo’s innovative and targeted strategy revolves around the needs of mass affluent and future affluent young users with mid-range salaries, also ambitious, educated professionals making their way up the career ladder. The company wanted to make recreational and social spending easy for those with active social lives. Its goal was to provide financial management tools to those with increasing disposable incomes, and access to investments and loans for those starting families and looking towards long-term financial goals. All these lifestyle tools had to be intuitive to use and extremely simple.
In 2019, the company partnered with Viet Capital Bank and OpenWay, the provider of Way4, the leading digital payments software platform, so it could offer innovative services through the Timo app. These include smart financial management tools, payments, savings and investments, lending, social spending, instalments, cards, and campaigns with third-party vendors, available on iOS, Android, and web. OpenWay’s Way4 platform provides external systems with a full set of APIs, which allow integration with a variety of key financial partners that enable access to their services. It allows the management of a fully digital card issuing and payment lifecycle, playing a key role as a back-office system for Timo’s end users. Since the entire wallet is on a single platform, the customer gets a seamless experience when using the app to perform various tasks through the day. It also saves costs and allows Timo to offer fee-free debit card transactions.
However, what really differentiates Timo from similar digital solutions is the human touch offered at Timo Hangouts, banking centers that look exactly like trendy, minimalist cafes. Hangouts are the complete opposite of a cold, official bank branch and is the savvy digital bank’s answer to those who crave a light, moderate human touch while enjoying the privacy and convenience of the digital experience. For Timo customers they can function as temporary workplaces or a meeting place. Timo representatives stand by unobtrusively assisting or not assisting, as needed. Timo’s innovative approach is fulfilling the desire for digital-first customers to have a different kind of physical banking experience, and in guessing what their target customers really need – a place more “hang out” than “visit”, where they can browse different lifestyle and banking options.
On Way4, Timo is able to offer a quick and fully digital customer onboarding process in the same time it takes to order and enjoy a cup of coffee. With just a couple of minutes on the digital app and 15 minutes at a Timo Hangout, the onboarding process can be completed securely and conveniently. During the in-person verification required by State Bank of Vietnam, the customer can enjoy a complimentary beverage and chat with bank staff.
Source: The Asian Business Review