Vietnam's Card Market Grows 300 per cent
The Vietnam Card Association (VCA) on December 21, 2005 held a press briefing in Hanoi to report the credit card development and the orientation for the future.
Nguyen Thu Ha, deputy general director of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and also chairman of the association, said the card market has developed rapidly since it was launched in 1996.
In the initial stage, Vietnam has only one bank to issue cards. Up to now, as many as 17 commercial banks in the country have been issuing domestic credit cards and six others, international credit cards.
There are now 1,200 automatic telling machines (ATMs) and more than 12,000 other points of sales in Vietnam. Credit institutions have issued 2.1 million cards, including 1.6 million domestic and 500,000 international ones.
Ha said that the domestic credit card market has an average annual growth of 300 per cent with various kinds of cards amid busier banking operations.
L.A
Vietnamese
