ATM, POS transaction value up 34%

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reported at a forum on the sustained growth of the banking industry, held in Hanoi recently.

By the end of last year, Vietnam had some 17,558 ATM and 268,813 POS, a year-on-year increase of 10%.

The value of transactions via POS rose by 27% to more than VND318 trillion (US$13.95 billion), while the number of transactions surged sharply by 40% to nearly VND136 million.

The ratio of cash withdrawal at ATMs declined to 6.86% late last year against 15.71% in 2016.

Director of the SBV’s Payment Department Pham Tien Dung said that payments via internet and mobile phones last year soared by more than 50%, while inter-bank transactions also witnessed a strong growth at 30%, both in volume and value, with a daily transaction revenue of some US$10 billion.

Dung attributed the rise to the banking industry’s efforts to apply technological advances in the fourth industrial revolution to develop payment infrastructure, and enhance payment security and safety in recent years.

The SBV has also focused on streamlining legal framework and applying technologies in non-cash payment besides promoting management and supervision in payment.

Besides this, commercial banks have integrated more functions on payment, so that customers can pay for all kinds of bills, from water, electricity and telephone to insurance and transport fee through their bank accounts.

The SBV has so far implemented a plan to develop card payment using card readers at POS and mobile points of sale (mPOS) from 2017 to 2020, which is aimed at boosting the non-cash payment method in Vietnam, as approved in Decision 2545/QD-TTg by the Prime Minister.

Accordingly, the ratio of cash to total payment instruments will be below 10% by the end of 2020, when the whole market will have more than 300,000 card readers installed at POS to process some 200 million transactions every year.