Digital finance and funding pressure in Vietnamese banks

Purpose This study aims to examine whether reported CoreTech in bank annual reports provides a standalone resilience signal or contains conditional information about deposit-growth pressure during periods of stress. Design/methodology/approach Using an unbalanced panel of 25 publicly listed Vietnamese commercial banks from 2013 to 2025, the study constructs an auditable annual-report index of reported internal technology implementation. The index separates implementation evidence from digital ambition, customer-facing channels and generic disclosure. Regressions with bank and year fixed effects examine how lagged reported CoreTech relates to deposit-growth pressure across stress periods. Findings Banks with stronger lagged reported CoreTech experienced weaker deposit growth during the COVID stress window. This represents a relative deposit-growth shortfall rather than deposit outflows or realized liquidity distress. No statistically detectable association is found during 2022–2023 or for nonperforming-loan outcomes. Practical implications Supervisors, managers and analysts should interpret reported CoreTech alongside deposit growth, the current account and savings account ratio, loan-to-deposit ratios, liquidity buffers and bank business models. Originality/value The study provides an auditable disclosure-based measure of reported internal technology implementation and shows that its information content varies across stress environments.