Eximbank board member Richa Goswami discusses how the bank can draw on its history by reinterpreting its strengths in the context of customers’ changing expectations.
For a bank with a long history, transformation requires balancing what should endure with what needs to change.
Goswami, a member of Eximbank's Board of Directors, sees the bank's history as a foundation rather than a blueprint for its next phase. She believes Eximbank should identify what made it relevant in the past and reinterpret those strengths for customers whose expectations have changed.
Her approach centers on three ideas: purpose, relevance and trust.
Rediscovering purpose,
not reinventing it
Goswami sees clues to Eximbank's future in its beginnings.
Established as the Export-Import Bank to serve Vietnam's importers, exporters and businesses as the country entered a new period of economic development, Eximbank was built around a practical purpose.
Goswami points to stories of employees working late, answering phones and sending faxes to support customers as examples of early customer-centric banking.
"What pulls me most toward this moment is Eximbank's own history," she said. "That is customer-centricity. That's the DNA this bank was actually built on." For her, the opportunity is not to recreate those ways of working but to recover the intent behind them.
Eximbank's original customers included businesses participating in Vietnam's economic growth.
Today's market and customer expectations are different, but Goswami believes the underlying question remains the same: how can the bank remain useful and relevant to the people and businesses it serves?
Eximbank’s original customer-first spirit is not something
to recreate, but to reinterpret for a new generation,
she said.
Relevance has to be
earned again
History alone does not provide a strategy.
"The truth is our customers have changed," Goswami said.
Rather than developing products and then seeking customers for them, she argues that banks should start with how people live, where they encounter financial friction and what they value and consider normal.
"People don't pay for products;
they pay for experiences," she said.
This is particularly relevant in Vietnam, where younger consumers increasingly expect services to be personalized, convenient and immediate.
Goswami believes Vietnam's rapidly developing market can learn from digital banking models in other countries rather than follow the same development path step by step.
For Eximbank, customer insight needs to translate into a limited number of priorities that the organization can execute effectively. She describes this as "ruthless prioritization": identifying the customers the bank wants to serve, determining which experiences matter most and concentrating resources where it can make a meaningful difference.
"In life, less is more," she said.
The principle is to prioritize depth over breadth, address meaningful customer problems and give people clear reasons to choose the bank.
This is particularly relevant in Vietnam, where younger consumers increasingly expect services to be personalized, convenient and immediate.
Goswami believes Vietnam's rapidly developing market can learn from digital banking models in other countries rather than follow the same development path step by step.
For Eximbank, customer insight needs to translate into a limited number of priorities that the organization can execute effectively. She describes this as "ruthless prioritization": identifying the customers the bank wants to serve, determining which experiences matter most and concentrating resources where it can make a meaningful difference.
"In life, less is more," she said.
The principle is to prioritize depth over breadth, address meaningful customer problems and give people clear reasons to choose the bank.
Trust is built through
everyday banking
If purpose explains why an institution exists and relevance determines whether it continues to matter, Goswami sees trust as essential to sustaining the relationship.
Money, she argues, represents people's work, savings, plans and responsibilities. When customers place their money with a financial institution, they entrust it with something closely connected to their lives.
Trust begins with whether customers feel listened to and understood and whether they believe the bank will respond to their needs.
Trust is built through repeated interactions: whether everyday banking works smoothly, how the bank responds when problems arise and whether customers feel understood rather than simply targeted with products.
For this reason, Goswami does not view customer experience as merely a service layer around a product-led organization.
Some banking interactions, she said, should become almost effortless. She recalled seeing account opening at a traditional bank take weeks while digital challengers could complete the process in minutes.
Removing such friction may require changes across technology, operations, compliance, risk management and legacy systems. The objective, she said, should not be digitalization for its own sake but making everyday banking faster, secure and dependable.
Other situations require a human approach.
Goswami recalled cases in which recently widowed customers contacted a bank with limited knowledge of their household finances. In such circumstances, an efficient process alone was not enough. Employees should listen their customers with empathy before offering financial solutions.
Technology can reduce friction, she said, while human judgment and empathy remain important in more complex circumstances.
The question is therefore not whether banking should be digital or human, but where each approach creates the most appropriate customer experience.
In her view, financial ratios may matter to bankers,
but customer trust is the asset that makes a
relationship sustainable.
Technology
should follow strategy
Goswami cautions against equating transformation with technology.
Artificial intelligence, digital platforms and other technologies can create new possibilities, but investing in them before identifying which customer problems need to be solved can turn transformation into a pursuit of novelty rather than value.
"Technology is an enabler, not the starting point. The tail can't wag the dog," she said.
The starting point is strategy: understand customers,
identify the problems worth solving and make clear
choices about where the bank intends to differentiate.
The same principle applies to data. Banks hold large amounts of customer information, but Goswami believes the more important question is what customers receive in return for allowing institutions to use it.
Personal financial management tools, for example, can use customer data to help people understand their spending, savings and financial behavior, potentially supporting better decisions and strengthening relationships beyond interest rates and promotions.
Transformation also depends on employees. A strategy can appear strong on paper but fail if employees are not supported, equipped or empowered to execute it, Goswami said.
She therefore views organizational culture as an execution issue rather than a separate "soft" consideration. Employees need the confidence and support to act in customers' interests, while customer feedback, complaints and recurring points of friction need to feed into decision-making.
At the board level, this means keeping strategy focused on customer outcomes and ensuring technology and investment decisions serve the broader strategy. Transformation, Goswami said, "starts and ends with the customer."
Strategy determines how the bank responds to customer needs, execution turns those choices into action, and governance helps keep the organization on course. Employee experience forms part of the same system, as supported and empowered employees are better positioned to deliver the intended customer experience.
From transformation
to rebuilding
Over the next five to 10 years, Goswami wants Eximbank to become a bank that Vietnamese customers trust, find convenient and feel understands their needs.
She also hopes its transformation can become a case study of how a long-established financial institution can adapt to changing customer expectations and compete against international benchmarks.
Transformation does not require an institution to erase its history and start again. For Goswami,
the opportunity is to identify what made
Eximbank meaningful in the first place and give that purpose a new expression.
Its next phase will require new technologies, capabilities and ways of working, along with discipline in setting priorities.
But the underlying purpose does not need to disappear.
Eximbank's next chapter, in Goswami's view, is about preserving the purpose that gives the bank meaning, changing what no longer serves customers and earning their trust through everyday banking experiences.
Its next phase will require new technologies, capabilities and ways of working, along with discipline in setting priorities.
But the underlying purpose does not need to disappear.
Eximbank's next chapter, in Goswami's view, is about preserving the purpose that gives the bank meaning, changing what no longer serves customers and earning their trust through everyday banking experiences.