Businesses Must Grasp E-Payment Services & Regulations

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry (VCCI) has recently cooperated with the country’s central bank and the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) to organise a conference in Hanoi themed “Effectively using non-cash payment services” to help local businesses comprehend the legal regulations and services of electronic payment.

The payment system of the central bank has been significantly improved. Apart from the inter-bank e-payment system and internal e-payment systems, local commercial banks also have bilateral payment systems. Moreover, almost all common e-payment services in the world including automated teller machines (ATM), phone banking, internet banking and card issue were applied to Vietnamese banks.

According to Deputy Head of Monetary Policy Department under the State Bank of Vietnam, Mai Van Ban, carrying out cash payment for regular and high-valued transactions is unsafe and sometimes not feasible. Therefore, local enterprises need to use e-payment services. To do so, they must clearly understand about such e-payment services and the system of related legal documents. Currently, Vietnam has 13 banks providing ATM services, four banks providing Internet banking and 42 banks participating in the international payment system, helping to meet the increasing demand of clients.

As well as introducing the application of e-payment services, Vietcombank’s representative said that the bank is now using two ways of providing their services: traditional and e-payment channels. Services via e-payment channels include internet banking, phone banking, e-banking, ATM, POS/EDC and KIOS. According to Vietcombank’s statistics, the number of transactions via these services is increasing progressively.

• Nguyen Thoa