Non-cash payment in Vietnam is growing, but local preference for cash is still a problem (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - While non-cashpayments are admittedly on the rise, the cash payment habit and limiteddevelopment of technology infrastructure are big problems for the country’snon-cash economy, experts have said.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam, as of September there were 32 non-bank organisationslicensed to supply intermediary payment services such as e-wallets ande-payment gateways.
Banks are also pushing for more payments using newtechnologies, with 24 enabling QR code payment and having around 50,000code-scan points.
In the first six months of the year, e-payments viathe internet jumped 60.64 percent in the number and 18.5 percent in the valueover the same period last year. Mobile payments witnessed a year-on-year surgeof 169.5 percent in the number of transactions.
Speaking at a recent conferenceorganised by the Vietnam Bank Association and International Data Group Vietnam in HCM City, Neil Van Heerden, head of commercial -international at Thai financial technology company True Money, said non-cashpayments were rising sharply in Vietnam dueto the young population, rapidly growing economy and expanding middle classbesides the rise of e-commerce and technological services companies.
Nguyen Hung, General Director of TPBank,said technology was also changing customers' habits and how they experiencebanks since they have more options and banks should be more customer-focused intheir procedures and services.
Le Thanh Tam, Chairmanof International Data Group Vietnam and ASEAN, said cashpayments still accounted for 79 percent in Vietnam andpaying through banks was still not common.
The financial technology (fintech) infrastructure isstill restricted to big cities and digital fintech and its users are rare,according to Tam.
An executive from MOCA Technology and Service JSC saidthe Vietnamese habit of using cash was a core problem to the non-cash economy,but if technology was ready to satisfy their requirements, people would bewilling to use non-cash payment in their day-to-day transactions, he said.
So fintech companies needed to expand the non-cashpayment eco-system so that this method could become more popular and be usedfor important transactions, he said.
Once users realise non-cash payment is more simple andconvenient than cash, they would be less hesitant to use it, he assured./.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam, as of September there were 32 non-bank organisationslicensed to supply intermediary payment services such as e-wallets ande-payment gateways.
Banks are also pushing for more payments using newtechnologies, with 24 enabling QR code payment and having around 50,000code-scan points.
In the first six months of the year, e-payments viathe internet jumped 60.64 percent in the number and 18.5 percent in the valueover the same period last year. Mobile payments witnessed a year-on-year surgeof 169.5 percent in the number of transactions.
Speaking at a recent conferenceorganised by the Vietnam Bank Association and International Data Group Vietnam in HCM City, Neil Van Heerden, head of commercial -international at Thai financial technology company True Money, said non-cashpayments were rising sharply in Vietnam dueto the young population, rapidly growing economy and expanding middle classbesides the rise of e-commerce and technological services companies.
Nguyen Hung, General Director of TPBank,said technology was also changing customers' habits and how they experiencebanks since they have more options and banks should be more customer-focused intheir procedures and services.
Le Thanh Tam, Chairmanof International Data Group Vietnam and ASEAN, said cashpayments still accounted for 79 percent in Vietnam andpaying through banks was still not common.
The financial technology (fintech) infrastructure isstill restricted to big cities and digital fintech and its users are rare,according to Tam.
An executive from MOCA Technology and Service JSC saidthe Vietnamese habit of using cash was a core problem to the non-cash economy,but if technology was ready to satisfy their requirements, people would bewilling to use non-cash payment in their day-to-day transactions, he said.
So fintech companies needed to expand the non-cashpayment eco-system so that this method could become more popular and be usedfor important transactions, he said.
Once users realise non-cash payment is more simple andconvenient than cash, they would be less hesitant to use it, he assured./.
VNA
