Non-contact payment (contactless) by waving, tapping on POS machine for payment, is a popular trend of cashless payment, in addition to domestic card, international card and Payment by QR code via mobile devices. This form is well received by its style, convenience and high safety.
The report also said that the habit of using new payment technologies is becoming desired. 44 percent of surveyed people use payment via mobile applications, 32 percent use non-contact payment technologies, 19 percent use QR code payment (using the phone to scan the transaction code to transfer money to the seller’s account).
The rate of 32 percent of people in the above survey is using contactless card technology, showing that consumers are getting a better understanding of the benefits, security and convenience of this technology in their daily transactions.
According to the common judgments of the financial technology community, the contactless chip card technology has many advantages, such as processing faster transaction information; being able to store large information which is 13 times higher, helping banks integrate many utility applications for customers in one card; increasing security in the process of use, minimising the risk of criminal offenses (skimming), limiting fake cards when not presenting cards to sellers, not disclosing information on Card, no PIN disclosure. With MasterCard contactless cards, if users accidentally hit many times when making payment, the transaction takes place exactly one time.
The contactless card was first presented in Vietnam in 2013, when Vietnam Joint Stock Export Import Bank (Eximbank) cooperated with MasterCard named MasterCard PayPass. However, until 2017-2018, some banks such as Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), Saigon Thuong Tin Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Sacombank), Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) and Viet Capital Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Viet Capital Bank) simultaneously issued contactless cards, this technology has been noticed by users.
So far, Sacombank has cooperated with Visa, MasterCard card organisations and JCB to carry out contactless payment technology on many international card lines. Vietcombank deployed for all cards issued by the bank, including international Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, UnionPay and Napas domestic cards.
Thomas William Tobin, director of Vietcombank’s retail division, shared 2019 would be a year of huge changes in payment technology, especially contactless cards, after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued a basic set of standards for internal chip cards location and for technical QR Code specifications.
Consequently, Vietcombank will upgrade card acceptance points to accept contactless cards. This method is of great benefit, especially for small transactions because it does not need to be swiped but touched for payment. But for people to use widely, it needs to explain to customers that this is a safer payment method than a swipe card.
In March 2019, Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) launched SCB beYOU international payment card, with vertical design of personality. Vietnamese people or foreigners residing in Vietnam, from 15 years older can open cards without proofing income. The noticeable point of SCB beYOU card is the variety of payment methods, such as direct payment from smart phones without cards, or lightly touching or waving cards in front of POS screen, because this card integrates with Modern technologies such as QR Easy, Samsung Pay and contactless technology.
According to MasterCard’s announcement in September 2016, in Europe, nearly 50 percent of card payments used non-contact technology. ABI Research Technology Research Company forecasted that the number of contactless payment cards issued annually in the US would increase to 330 million units, equivalent to 55 percent of the total number of new credit and debit cards by 2020, up from 25 million cards in 2015. In Southeast Asia, Singapore has 80 percent of transactions done in contactless form.
In Vietnam, the technology is still in the early stages of penetrating modern, post-wallet and payment via QR codes. This shows that there is still plenty of room for contactless payment to explode in the future, especially when the user reception for contactless cards is very positive.
