On January 9, 2023, in Hanoi, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a Thematic Conference on Payment Operations by Payment Service Providers under the chair of SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong. The Conference was also attended by Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung and Deputy Governor Pham Quang Dzung.
Encouraging results in the payment operations
In his opening speech, Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung assessed that over the past time, the payment operations have achieved a lot of impressive results. In the period of 2015-2017, a World Bank (WB) report showed that 31% of Vietnamese adults had at least one payment account; now, this number has increased to 77.41%. Many banks have reported that over 90% of their transactions have been made on the digital channels, with the number in some banks reaching as high as 98%.
Regarding the number of transactions, in 2019, there were 700 million transactions via the clearing system. In 2023, the number of transactions reached 7 billion transactions, a 10x increase as compared to that of 2019. This shows the outstanding growth thanks to the SBV's policies and the determination of the commercial banks.
Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung speaks at the Conference
According to Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dzung, when the number of customers is rising, transactions are increasing in both quantity and quality, the connections are getting more and more complex, it also poses many challenges for the management and the security and safety in payment operations. Therefore, when several banks have achieved more than 25 million customers - a dream number for banks in many countries - ensuring security and safety would become more important.
Reporting more specifically at the Conference, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Director General of the SBV Payment Department, shared that over the past time, the SBV had directed the credit institutions to make efforts in their implementation, with a lot of significant results.
Accordingly, the SBV had submitted to the Government for issuance and implementation of various Schemes, Programs and Plans to promote non-cash payments; studied and issued various legal documents on payment operations, etc. In particular, during the period under the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SBV had issued several policies to reduce the payment service fees in order to promptly support the affected people and businesses; proactively studied, reviewed, amended, supplemented and issued the regulations to facilitate non-cash payment products and services via technology applications, bringing about safe utilities for customers, etc.
The infrastructure for non-cash payments, especially electronic payments, has always been improved; many payment products and services that are user-friendly, convenient, and applying modern technology, have been provided by the payment service providers, meeting the customers’ diversified payment demands. Currently, the entire banking system has more than 180 million individual payment accounts. Payments via the Internet, Mobile Banking, and QR Codes have been growing rapidly. There are currently 85 institutions providing payment services via the Internet, and 52 institutions providing payment services via Mobile Banking. The average annual growth rates in the numbers of payment transactions via the Internet and Mobile Banking have reached 46.48% and 90.12% respectively. The average annual growth rate (from 2018 to now) in the number of payment transactions via QR Codes has reached 471.13%.
In addition, the ecosystem for the banking digital products and services has been developed with a lot of modern and convenient payment means and methods, which is connected with several other sectors.
An overview of the Conference
Mr. Pham Anh Tuan added that, in order to promote the payment operations with other countries in the region, the SBV has cooperated with the Bank of Thailand, the National Bank of Cambodia, and the Bank of the Lao People's Democratic Republic to implement pilot projects on cross-border payment via QR codes.
Strengthening security and safety in payment operations
Sharing about the work of ensuring security and safety in the payment operations, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan said that the SBV has actively coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security and other relevant agencies to conduct a lot of measures to prevent, deter and minimize the risks of frauds, scams and breaches of payment security and safety.
In addition, the SBV has also enhanced the management, inspection and supervision over the payment service provision in order to promptly detect and handle with any violations. The SBV has also requested all payment service providers to strictly comply with the SBV’s instructions and the relevant legal regulations, ensuring the safety of all payment operations and the safety of their customers’ assets, etc.
An overview of the Conference
Ensuring security and safety is a key task in payment operations
In her concluding remarks at the Conference, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong once again affirmed the role of payment operations as one of three areas of banking operations that have been codified in the laws. Over the past time, the payment operations have been growing robustly, contributing significantly to the socio-economic development, but also posing many challenges for both the payment service providers and the SBV as the supervisory agency. Therefore, the SBV Governor requested that in 2024, the banking sector’s focus in the area of payment operations should be on ensuring the security and the safety of the payment operations and the entire banking system.
For the SBV entities, the SBV Governor requested them to further improve the legal frameworks, focusing on creating a momentum for the promotion of non-cash payment; promoting the digital transformation; continuing to study and effectively implement the assigned tasks in the Prime Minister’s Scheme on Cashless Payment Promotion; enhancing the supervision of the payment system, the data analysis for early warnings and correction; strengthening the data exploitation for early detection and warning; strengthening the information and communication for awareness raising, etc.
For the SBV municipal and provincial branches, the SBV Governor requested them to fully understand the requirements in all documents forming the legal frameworks on payment operations, anti-money laundering, etc., and disseminate the information to the entities and organizations in their areas, and especially to the people by innovative means of communication to improve the people’s awareness; collaborating with the SBV entities to enhance the inspection and supervision over the operations of the credit institutions in their areas.
For the payment service providers, the SBV Governor requested them to focus on ensuring the security and the safety in all payment operations; reviewing and coming up with possible recommendations for the enhanced protection and risk prevention; organizing post-transaction audits over the transactions through eKYC; reviewing their internal processes, ensuring the compliance, coherence, clearance and the individuals’ responsibilities in all operations; enhancing the automated inspection to prevent any individuals’ frauds; strictly managing their customers’ information; complying fully with the SBV’s warnings, notifications and instructions; enhancing the information sharing among the payment service providers; and ensuring customers’ interests, etc.
Le Hang