Hanoi (VNA) - TPBank has become the first Vietnamese bank to allow alldomestic cardholders to make payment and withdrawal transactions in theRepublic of Korea (RoK) in addition to international debit cards or creditcards.
TPBank, the National PaymentCorporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) and BC Card – the largestcredit card network in the RoK with more than a quarter market share– successfully implemented the project to connect trans-internationalpayment services.
Accordingly, all TPBank’s ATM cardholders can immediately implementpayment and withdrawal transactions at some three million locations acceptingcard payments and nearly 40,000 ATMs in the RoK.
With the service, TPBank has helped customers completely eliminateworries of having to buy foreign currency in time to open aninternational debit card or credit card for travelling, business trips ortransferring money to their children to study in the RoK. Moreover, keeping alocal card in their wallet for direct payments via POS machines or withdrawingan amount of spending money at an ATM when needed will be much safer thancarrying a large amount of foreign currency.
Nguyen Hung, TPBank General Director, said: “Through thisproject, TPBank hopes to bring the best services and experiences to Vietnamesecustomers who have been living, working, studying and travelling in the RoK aswell as contribute to promoting the Viet Nam – RoK strategic cooperationpartnership.”
He added that with the dynamism, enthusiasm and the forefront in applying newtechnologies, TPBank is expected to join State agencies to expand this featurein other countries such as Thailand, China and Japan to give customers the bestexperience when using their bank's services.
In recent years, the RoK has become one of the most popular destinations forVietnamese to travel, work and study. The Korea Tourism Board said that in 2019there were more than half a million Vietnamese travelling in the RoK,representing a 22 percent year-on-year increase. The number of Vietnamesestudents studying in the country has reached 37,426 people, an increase of morethan 10,000 compared to 2018.
In 2020, tourism activities from Vietnam to the RoK were interrupted dueto COVID-19. However, when the pandemic is controlled, the number ofVietnamese tourists travelling to the country will increase again. The RoK hasalso implemented many policies to support Vietnamese students.
According to statistics from the Payment Department under the State Bank ofVietnam, by the end of the second quarter of 2020, the total number of cards incirculation in Vietnam reached more than 106 million, of which the number ofdomestic cards accounted for more than 90 million, nearly six times thenumber of credit cards. At TPBank, the growth rate of cards is always veryhigh, at 50 percent a year compared to the market./.