Mr. Le Van Tuyen - Deputy Director of the Payment Department, State Bank of Vietnam - updated the above information at a press conference on the results of banking activities in 2024 and the implementation of tasks in 2025 of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on the afternoon of January 7.

According to Mr. Tuyen, some banks have achieved a very high rate of customers registering for biometrics. At VietinBank and BIDV, this rate is 83%, Vietcombank is 92% and Agribank is 66%.

Recently, the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam issued Circulars guiding Decree 52 on non-cash payments. These are Circular 17 on opening and using payment accounts at payment service providers; Circular 18 on bank card activities; Circular 40 on providing intermediary payment services.

According to regulations, payment account holders, card holders, and e-wallet holders are only allowed to withdraw money and make payment transactions by electronic means on payment accounts, bank cards, and e-wallets after completing the verification of identity documents and biometric information of the account holder or representative (for institutional customers) applicable from January 1, 2025.

The checking and verification of customers' biometric information according to this regulation only needs to be done once before making a transaction by electronic means; customers are not required to authenticate biometric information for each withdrawal transaction or payment transaction by electronic means.

To meet the deadline of January 1, 2025, over the past months, the banking industry has proactively and actively implemented many communication plans, instructions, and encouraged customers to implement biometric information verification; at the same time, arranged and increased resources and equipment to directly serve at transaction counters to support customers who have difficulty in updating biometrics via the application.

“Many banks have arranged for staff to work long hours on weekends and holidays to support the updating of biometric information at the counter, meeting the number of customers coming to update biometric information which has increased by one and a half times, double the normal days. Some banks have committed to continue to increase the number until the end of January 2025 to serve customers,” said Mr. Le Van Tuyen.

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Vietcombank achieved a rate of 92% of individual customers who have had their biometrics authenticated. Photo: Hoang Ha.

Regarding the Mobile Money service pilot, this program has contributed significantly to the Cashless Payment Project, especially in remote areas.

As of January 2025, the total number of accounts registered to use Mobile Money services is 10.14 million, of which 7.26 million are in rural and remote areas. There are up to 11,889 business locations setting up Mobile Money services.

The total number of points accepting payment via Mobile Money service reached 276,224 points. Since its implementation, up to November 2024, the total number of transactions of deposits, withdrawals and payments via Mobile Money reached 181 million transactions, with a total value of 6,193 billion VND.

The State Bank of Vietnam has agreed with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Public Security to submit to the Government a proposal to extend the pilot period for Mobile Money.