The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the World Bank (WB) co-organized a “Global payment standard ISO 20022 and implementation plan in Vietnam” workshop on November 28, 2016 at the SBV headquarters. SBV Deputy-Governor Nguyen Kim Anh was the chairman of the Workshop.
Attending the workshop were more than 100 representatives from SBV entities, the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA), National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS), Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD), Vietnam State Treasury, Vietnam Customs, commercial banks, foreign bank branches operating in Vietnam and representatives from the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
In order to remove difficulties created by different payment standards, ISO 20022 was established and developed as a common language for financial payment standards and formats to help them “talk to each other”. In recent years, the application of ISO 20022 at the countries and areas around the world has been popular and brought many positive benefits.
Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, WB senior expert
Speaking at the meeting, Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, WB senior expert, said that WB specialists have recently cooperated with SBV entities and commercial banks to conduct surveys and assessments regarding the reality of the use of the financial payment standards/formats of credit institutions and operating organizations, as part of the payment-financial infrastructure in Vietnam. Ms Hang confirmed that WB specialists would continue their close cooperation with the SBV and commercial banks to implement and apply ISO 20022 in Vietnam.
The survey - carried out by the SBV on ISO 20022 on credit institutions and payment service providers and payment systems working with the Vietnam State Treasury, VSD, NAPAS - said there has been a special concern among those entities in regard to the roadmap and implementation plan of payment standard ISO 20022. The Deputy-Governor highly appreciated the workshop for presenting the opportunity for the SBV to collect more information in order to complete a feasible plan and roadmap for conducting these payment standards in the context of Vietnam's requirements.
Mr Nghiem Thanh Son, Deputy-Director General of the Payment Department
Assessing the implementation of ISO 20022 on the Vietnamese financial system, Mr Nghiem Thanh Son, Deputy-Director General of the Payment Department, said that the SBV would start by researching and implementing the application of ISO 20022 in the payment sector, with a priority focus on the Inter- bank Electronic Payment System (IBPS), especially in applying ISO 20022 to IBPS’s core processing system as well as interface connection/transformation system. The time-scale for applying ISO 20022 is concomitant with the progress of upgrading IBPS system to the 3rd phase (expected by 2020). Additionally, in the near future, NAPAS will develop an Automated Clearing House (ACH) which will be completely new in Vietnam, and this system could be also used to apply ISO 20022 to the core payment-format of the system.
Ms Sharon Toh - SWIFT expert
At the workshop, speakers from SWIFT gave presentations on the ISO 20022 payment standard and the actual situation as it applied to different payment systems in Vietnam, the benefits of switching to ISO20022 and the proposal for it's implementation in Vietnam. The attendees also held discussions and made proposals on issues relating to trends in the development and practical implementation of ISO 20022 along with any impacts on payment activities, international experiences in applying ISO 20022 to payment activities, the overall pattern connecting payment systems in Vietnam and the plans for implementation of this payment standard in Vietnam.
Thoa Le