The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is encouraging local people to further use non-cash payment services, Pham Tien Dung, director of the SBV’s Payment Department, said.
According to Dung, SBV has taken measures to strongly carry out Decision 2545/QD-TTg and Decision No 241/QD-TTg issued by the prime minister on fostering non-cash payments in Vietnam.
Accordingly, SBV has issued a plan to develop card payment using card readers at points of sale (POS) and mobile points of sale (mPOS) from 2017 to 2020 since last year, aimed at boosting the non-cash payment in Vietnam according to Decision 2545/QD-TTg.
Under the plan, the ratio of cash to total payment instruments will be below 10 percent by the end of 2020.
The plan sets a target of gradually increasing the number and value of card payment transactions using card readers. By 2020, the whole market will have over 300,000 card readers installed at POS to process around 200 million transactions per year.
E-payment in e-commerce will be also promoted to achieve the targets of having 100 percent modern supermarkets, shopping malls and distribution centers installed with card readers by 2020, which would enable consumers to make non-cash payments when purchasing goods.
The percentage of people aged over 15 years having bank accounts will be also targeted to increase to at least 70 percent by the end of 2020.
Early this year, SBV has continued applying measures to carry out the prime minister’s Decision No 241/QD-TTg on fostering non-cash payments for public services like water and electricity and transactions related to social welfare.
Accordingly, 80 percent of tax payments in cities will be paid through banks while treasuries in all provinces and cities will have cashless payment systems by 2020.
Besides, non-cash payments are expected to be accepted by 70 percent each of electricity and water suppliers, all universities and colleges, and 50 percent of hospitals in major cities. Around 20 per cent of social welfare payments will be made through banks.
The government plans to develop modern means of bank payments and accept bank cards at treasuries, hospitals, and schools.
It has instructed banks to offer cards with multiple methods of use so that they can be used to pay directly, through smart phones and others.
It has encouraged cooperation between banks and other organisations to offer more forms of non-cash payments, especially for making payments related to social welfare.
But it has made it clear that these forms should be user-friendly so that even people in rural and remote places without bank accounts can use them.
Non-cash payments have been becoming a trend in recent years, Dung said, adding that Vietnam saw a decline in cash withdrawals for the third consecutive year in 2017, with the rate reducing from 15 percent in 2016 to 10 percent in 2017.
Dung attributed the positive result to streamlined legal regulations and promoted information infrastructure services.
Banking expert Can Van Luc said that up to 44 percent of the bank’s customers use digital banking services, such as mobile banking, internet banking, and make non-cash payment for e-commerce.
Industry insiders forecast that the non-cash payment would see significant changes next time. They gave the example of the payment method using QR codes. Though launched for a short time, the payment method has surged sharply by 120 percent in the first nine months of last year, with 5,000 POS accepting the QR code. The POS number is estimated to increase 10 times by the end of this year to 50,000 points.
However, to further boost the non-cash payment methods, Vietnam still needs to further promote information infrastructure and continuously streamline suitable legal framework to support the activity, the insiders said.
