Vietnamese businesses will be granted licences to provide e-walletservices from March 2015, after five years of a pilot programme.
TheState Bank of Vienam (SBV) has issued Circular 39, stipulating theregulations for intermediate payment services. Accordingly, e-walletwill be recognised as one of the payment services, together with othertypes such as collection and payment services.
Non-banking organisations in the pilot implementation can complete the required procedures and apply for licences.
The licences issued during the pilot scheme will be invalid by the end of next year.
Thee-wallet service was first introduced in VietnNam in 2008 in thecontext of an urgent need for payment methods for e-commerce activities.However, all nine businesses that were issued licences to implement theservice were part of the pilot project, as the country did not have aspecific legal framework covering the payment service.
A representative from the central bank said that Circular 39 will be the foundation for the development of the service.
However,the SBV asked enterprises providing e-wallet services to open anaccount to ensure payment, limit risks and refund money to customers incase of emergencies.
It has to be ensured that the payment is not more than the total balance of all their e-wallets at the same time.
Thebusinesses are not allowed to issue more than one e-wallet to a paymentaccount at a bank, as well as give credit to customers or pay interestrates. Activities to increase the value of the money in the e-wallet arealso prohibited.
E-wallet providers are required to have a tool for the central bank to carry out checks and inspections of the customers' money.
Deposits or withdrawals from e-wallets have to be made through bank accounts.
Statisticsfrom the central bank showed that at the end of 2013, the country had1.84 million e-wallets, with a total transaction of 23.3 trillion VND(1.1 billion USD).
The figure was said to be modest in comparison with the non-cash payment market in Vietnam.
There were 66 million units in the card market alone, with 52 billion USD worth of local transactions at the end of last year.
E-walletis virtual money created in mobile phones or other electronics devices,including computers and chips, and used as a non-cash payment method.
Users don't need a real wallet or cards, but only a mobile phone to pay bills or do e-commerce activities.-VNA
TheState Bank of Vienam (SBV) has issued Circular 39, stipulating theregulations for intermediate payment services. Accordingly, e-walletwill be recognised as one of the payment services, together with othertypes such as collection and payment services.
Non-banking organisations in the pilot implementation can complete the required procedures and apply for licences.
The licences issued during the pilot scheme will be invalid by the end of next year.
Thee-wallet service was first introduced in VietnNam in 2008 in thecontext of an urgent need for payment methods for e-commerce activities.However, all nine businesses that were issued licences to implement theservice were part of the pilot project, as the country did not have aspecific legal framework covering the payment service.
A representative from the central bank said that Circular 39 will be the foundation for the development of the service.
However,the SBV asked enterprises providing e-wallet services to open anaccount to ensure payment, limit risks and refund money to customers incase of emergencies.
It has to be ensured that the payment is not more than the total balance of all their e-wallets at the same time.
Thebusinesses are not allowed to issue more than one e-wallet to a paymentaccount at a bank, as well as give credit to customers or pay interestrates. Activities to increase the value of the money in the e-wallet arealso prohibited.
E-wallet providers are required to have a tool for the central bank to carry out checks and inspections of the customers' money.
Deposits or withdrawals from e-wallets have to be made through bank accounts.
Statisticsfrom the central bank showed that at the end of 2013, the country had1.84 million e-wallets, with a total transaction of 23.3 trillion VND(1.1 billion USD).
The figure was said to be modest in comparison with the non-cash payment market in Vietnam.
There were 66 million units in the card market alone, with 52 billion USD worth of local transactions at the end of last year.
E-walletis virtual money created in mobile phones or other electronics devices,including computers and chips, and used as a non-cash payment method.
Users don't need a real wallet or cards, but only a mobile phone to pay bills or do e-commerce activities.-VNA
