The State Bank of Vietnam, the country's central bank, has been requiring banks to shift to the use of domestic chip cards from magnetic-stripe cards in a bid to ensure safety and make non-cash transactions more convenient. According to experts, using chip cards would reduce the risk of counterfeit transactions, ensure payment security for customers and increase competitiveness of card payment in Vietnam.
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For the cardholders, with small transactions, no PIN code is required for customers, thus reducing operations when making payment, saving time and avoiding risks of disclosing PIN code.
The NAPAS has prepared infrastructure and resources, operations as well as techniques to support banks in the process of converting about 75 million ATM magnetic-stripe cards to ATM chip cards.
In 2019, about 30% of the ATM magnetic-stripe cards will be converted to chip cards and all 75 million ATM magnetic-stripe cards will be converted to chip cards by 2021. This roadmap is consistent with the transition in regional countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Kim Anh affirmed that the central bank requires the conversion of magnetic-stripe cards to chip cards to be in accordance with the roadmap.
Currently, the banks which will apply chip cards in the first phase include Vietcombank, VietinBank, BIDV, Agribank, Sacombank, TienphongBank and An Binh Bank, with the number of ATM cards accounting for about 70% of the total number of cards nationwide.
Vietcombank’s Deputy General Director Pham Anh Tuan hoped that based on a common standard, card synchronization would take less time and require less investment or interbank transaction fees. This would also minimize money and data theft at ATM’s in the context of rampant high-tech crime.
