Seven banks of Vietnam and the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (Napas) have jointly launched domestic credit cards and automated teller machine (ATM) cards embedded with microchip on January 25 in Hanoi.

The cardholders can withdraw cash at all domestic ATMs and affiliated networks of Napas in South Korea, some ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. Photo: An Phu

The seven banks include Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), HDBank, Viet Capital Bank (VCCB), Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank (HDBank), BaoViet Bank (BVB), and Sacombank.

Domestic chip-embedded cards will pave the way for the issuance of multifunctional cards and foster the growth of cashless transactions, as well as helping to minimize the risk of fraud in card payments, ensuring data safety and security for cardholders. The cardholders can withdraw cash at all domestic ATMs and affiliated networks of Napas in South Korea, some ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Nguyen Kim Anh, the Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said that the chip-embedded card launching is an important milestone in the diversification of payment cards, the synchronization in technical standards and compatibility, meeting the strict requirements of international standards on safety and security in payment. “This will contribute to building and enhancing the national retail payment infrastructure,” he said.

The Deputy Governor has suggested local banks, Napas and related units continue to closely coordinate, focusing on the quality and efficiency of the replacement of magnetic cards by chip-embedded ones and the implementation of the SBV’s basic standards for domestic chip cards. 

Earlier, the SBV required local banks to issue chip cards instead of the current magnetic ones from March 31, with the aim to ensure greater payment security and promoting cashless payment methods.

As of December 2020, 38 banks issued domestic chip cards and upgraded infrastructure for accepting chip cards on ATM or point-of-sales (POS) devices. Vietnam has around 93.78 million bank cards in circulation, in which the majority are magnetic cards, as of the last third quarter.