VinID acquired local payment firm People Care Jsc in May. It also owns People Care’s e-wallet MonPay, and has replaced the management board of the payment firm with its own executives since the end of last year.

Vingroup established VinID in July last year with a charter capital of VND3 trillion ($129.4 million), in which Vingroup owns 80 percent.

The license for VinID Pay is among the 31 certifications that the central bank has issued for payment intermediary companies.

Economists have said that the potential for cashless payments in Vietnam is huge due to a growing middle class and rapidly improving telecom infrastructure. The government targets to make 90 percent of all transactions cashless by 2020.

However, for now, the reliance on cash remains huge. About 80 percent of Vietnamese prefer to use cash for daily transactions, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.