On December 10, 2021, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Document No. 8751/NHNN-TT requesting all commercial banks, foreign bank branches, intermediary payment service providers and the SBV entities to ensure smooth and safe payment operations throughout the 2021 year-end period and during the 2022 Lunar New Year.
Accordingly, the commercial banks and the foreign bank branches in Vietnam are requested to: strictly comply with the relevant laws, regulations and the SBV guiding documents; closely coordinate with the relevant entities to promptly address any arising issues to ensure the smooth, safe and continuous operations of payment systems and services;
Proactively formulate and implement own specific plans on ATM operations throughout the 2021 year-end period and the 2022 Lunar New Year; take appropriate measures to ensure continuous operations for those ATMs in the areas where the transaction demand is forecast to increase sharply (near industrial and processing zones), etc.
Perform effectively the collaboration on the collection and payment for the state budget during the final days of 2021; formulate plans and assign sufficient staff to maintain and extend the time for daily payment transactions in order to promptly support the collection and payment transactions for the state budget;
Closely coordinate with the relevant entities to promptly respond to the requests for tracing and complaints from their customers in line with the applicable regulations; strengthen the communications to warn their customers about fraudulent methods, and instruct them on how to use payment services safely during the 2021 year-end period and the 2022 Lunar New Year.
For the intermediary payment service providers, they are requested to: strictly comply with the relevant laws, regulations and the SBV guiding documents; closely coordinate with the relevant entities to promptly address any arising issues to ensure the smooth, safe and continuous operations of the intermediary payment services; inspect and review all real transaction statistics to ensure the accuracy and consistency with the data on the accounting books, as well as the statistical reports; perform effectively the collaboration on the collection and payment for the state budget during the final days of 2021; closely coordinate with the relevant entities to promptly respond to the requests for tracing and complaints from their customers in line with the applicable regulations;
Strengthen the communications to warn their customers about fraudulent methods, and instruct them on how to use payment services safely during the 2021 year-end period and the 2022 Lunar New Year; those service providers providing Mobile-Money services must give priority to the deployment of Mobile-Money services in rural, mountainous, remote, border and island areas of Vietnam, especially in areas with no ATM or bank branch.
Vietnam National Payment Joint Stock Company (Napas) is requested to: Review the contingency plans; closely monitor and supervise, promptly respond to any arising errors and incidents to ensure stable, safe, and continuous operations of the financial switching and electronic clearing system, in order to meet the increasing demand for transactions throughout the 2021 year-end period and the 2022 Lunar New Year; work closely with the member banks and intermediary payment service providers to process and promptly respond to inquiries and complaints from their customers according to the applicable regulations.
The SBV municipal and provincial branches and the SBV Central Banking Department are requested to: Based on the SBV's regulations on the operational timeframes of the Interbank Electronic Payment System during the settlement period toward the end of 2021 and the 2022 Lunar New Year, regulate and notify the commercial banks and foreign bank branches present in their local jurisdiction about the time to stop receiving payment documents, ensuring timely handling of documents that have been received within the day, and avoiding delays and payment bottlenecks; Strictly and fully implement cash deposit and withdrawal transactions via the Interbank Electronic Payment System, ensuring the compliance with the applicable regulations on cash delivery, preservation and transportation; the SBV branches must actively monitor the situation, the public opinions in their areas related to payment operations, and direct, inspect and supervise the commercial banks and foreign bank branches in their local jurisdiction to improve their service quality, ensure payment security and safety; Strictly handle with any violations related to the service quality, security and safety of the ATM operations in their areas; Direct the commercial banks and foreign bank branches to perform effectively the collaboration on the collection for the state budget, creating favorable conditions for the people and businesses to make budget payments through the banking system, etc.
Le Hang