From the beginning of 2025, bank account holders without biometric authentication will not be able to make electronic transactions such as cash withdrawals, transfers and online card payments.
Some banking transactions require biometric authentication under the State Bank's regulations, effective from January 1, 2025.
Specifically, Circular 17 stipulates that account holders are only allowed to withdraw money and make payments electronically on their payment accounts after completing the verification of their identity documents; biometric information issued by the police agency or through the electronic identification and authentication system (VNeID).
Circular 18 It also requires that online card transactions can only be performed when the cardholder has authenticated biometrics with the bank, financial company... Direct card transactions at retail points of sale (POS) still take place normally, without requiring biometrics.
Biometric technology is a method of identifying and verifying individuals through biological characteristics such as facial images, fingerprints, iris patterns, voice, etc. This technology is considered to minimize the possibility of counterfeiting and has the highest security. Currently, most banks authenticate biometrics through facial recognition, because iris and voice data are not yet collected and stored.
As of the end of October, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung said that about 37 million customers had successfully registered for biometric information. Compared to the total number of personal accounts (180 million) by the end of 2023, this is approximately 20%. After the new biometric regulations took effect, he said the number of fraudulent accounts had decreased significantly.
Since November, banks have continuously sent out notices reminding customers to authenticate to avoid disruptions in transactions in the future. Accordingly, customers can use their citizen identification cards to self-authenticate biometrically through the banking application, or go directly to the transaction counter for support. For foreigners or people of Vietnamese origin whose nationality has not been determined, biometric data is collected through a direct meeting with the bank.
A representative of the Bank of Vietnam (BVBank) said that the bank has guided and directed customers to update before electronic transactions since November. Up to now, most of the customers who regularly conduct online transactions have registered.
Recently, this bank has also notified and instructed customers to update biometrics via many channels (SMS, Zalo), email, direct phone calls, and instructions at the counter. Older customers who only transact at the counter or ATM do not need to update biometrics. At the same time, BVBank said it has a plan to group customers to minimize transaction congestion when the deadline is near January 1, 2025.
Previously, from July 1, the State Bank also stipulated that the first biometric authentication is mandatory if customers want to transfer money online from 10 million VND or more at a time or 20 million VND in a day.
The regulations on biometric authentication were first issued by the State Bank to limit the problem of "junk" bank accounts, thereby reducing online fraud. For a long time, online fraud rings often used a series of "junk" accounts and cards to erase traces of money flow, thereby legalizing the use of fraudulent money. Therefore, cleaning up bank accounts is considered an effective solution to increase barriers to online fraud rings.
However, Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung affirmed that there is no radical and perfect solution. Decision 2345 and Circular 17 have tightened the opening of personal accounts for individual customers. However, from here, there has been a situation of circumventing regulations by opening corporate accounts, avoiding biometric authentication to serve fraudulent purposes. Recently, the police also dismantled a ring that hired people to open bank accounts, recorded their biometric videos for authentication, and then transferred the data to a fraud group in Cambodia.
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