Hanoi (VNS/VNA) ꦓ- TheNational Payment Corporation of Vietnam (Napas) last week said it will work with seven banks tointroduce domestic credit chip cards with unified standards to limit cashpayments and tackle black credit.

The domestic credit chipcards are expected to be officially launched this week. The seven banks includeVietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bankfor Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), Ban Viet Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VCCB), AsiaCommercial Bank (ACB), HCM City Housing Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank(HDB), Bao Viet Bank (BVB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin (Sacombank) and Vietnam Thuong Tin (Vietbank). Previously, fourState-owned commercial banks issued domestic credit cards but the issuance wastemporarily halted due to inefficient operation. Some joint-stock banks alreadyissued this type of card but without unified technical standards. Nguyen Quang Minh, Napas’ deputy director, saidthe new domestic credit cards will beaccepted throughout the networks of all banks while the previously-issued oneshad limited acceptance. “In developed countries,domestic credit cards are very common,” Minh said. “That banks will join withNapas to issue domestic credit cards will significantly contribute to limitingcash payments and provide more options for consumer credit to prevent blackcredit.” The domestic credit chipcards has high security in accordancewith the State Bank of Vietnam’sstandards and EMV standards – a security technology used worldwide for chipcard payments and acceptance devices – originally developed by Europay,MasterCard and Visa, he said. Cardholders will not have to pay fees for transactions withan interest-free period of up to 55 days compared to the typical 45 days. Theacceptance points will haveto pay fees of about 1.1-1.3 percent of the transaction values, lower thanother credit cards. The fees for cashwithdrawal would be about 1-2 percent of the transaction value (a minimumof 10,000-20,000 VND pertransaction), also much lower than the feeof about 4 percent of other international credit cards. Statistics from the Vietnam Bank Card Association showed thatoperating domestic credit cards saw a decrease of 10 percent in 2017-20 and newissuances fell by 36 percent. However, the totaltransaction value of existing domestic cards increased by 25 percent in theperiod./.