The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (Napas) and seven domestic banks recently launched domestic credit chip cards with unified standards to promote cashless payments and tackle black credit.

The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (Napas) and seven domestic
banks recently launched domestic credit chip cards with unified standards
(Photo: thanhnien.vn)

The seven banks are Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), Ban Viet Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Viet Capital Bank), Asia Commercial 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).

The cards will be accepted at more than 235,300 points of sale and 14,380 ATMs nationwide. Cardholders can also withdraw cash at ATMs of Napas’ partners in the Republic of Korea and ASEAN countries of Thailand and Malaysia.

Cardholders will be given an interest-free period of up to 55 days compared to the typical 45 days. The acceptance points will have to pay fees of about 1.1-1.3% of the transaction values, lower than other credit cards.

Statistics from the Vietnam Bank Card Association showed that operating domestic credit cards saw a decrease of 10% in 2017-20 and new issuances fell by 36%.

However, the total transaction value of existing domestic cards increased by 25% in the period.