Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam should develop breakthrough policies tocreate momentum for the further development of electronic payments to meet thegrowth of e-commerce, said Pham Nguyen Minh, Director of the Institute forTrade Research and Development under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Minhtold the conference on the future of card payment and electronic money held in Hanoion November 22 that the development of card payments and e-wallets in Vietnamhad not met its potential and taken advantage of e-commerce. The slowdevelopment could affect e-commerce in particular and the country’ssocio-economic outlook in general while increasing costs for local cashmanagement.

“E-commercehas become a growing trend across the world, thus making card payments ande-wallets a popular payment method in many countries, including Vietnam,” headded.

Cardpayments take up the highest proportion of the e-payment sector despite theslow growth rate. According to a World Bank report, in 2014, card paymentrevenue was 979 billion USD and would increase to 989 billion USD by 2019.E-wallets would see a surge and become the second most popular payment method,with revenue of 674 billion USD, by 2019, from 387 billion USD in 2014.

InVietnam, another report from Banking Vietnam showed that by the end of lastmonth, the number of issued cards was 99.5 million. Vietnam has around 17,000ATMs and 30,000 devices accepting cards. In 2015, there were up to 22.2 millioncustomers paying by cards.

Therevenue from card payment has also been on the rise. The revenue increased frommore than 724 trillion VND in 2011 to 1.6 quadrillion VND in 2015. 

Creditcards have been diversified. Most international brand names such as AmericanExpress, Visa, MasterCard, JCB, Diners Club, Discover and UnionPay now provideservices in Vietnam.

Thedirector said the card payment market and its potential in Vietnam have seenstrong growth. However, there are still shortcomings as the issue of creditcards has paid attention to the quantity but not quality. The proportion oflocal cards, though currently accounting for a high rate at 91 percent, has atendency to decrease in the card structure.

Meanwhile,most card payments were made through ATM (85 percent) while the remainingpayments were e-payments. The rate of cards under operation was 60-70 percent.

DrLe Huy Khoi from the institute said the Vietnamese people’s habit of using cashhas dominated, especially in rural areas. The ATM system has not been distributedevenly despite rapid development. ATMs have been mostly located in urban areas.

Inaddition, the lending interest rate through cards has been at a high level,together with annual fees, cash withdrawal fees and foreign exchange fees.

DrNguyen Thi Nhieu said the Government should review legal documents to developthe market which is expected to hold huge potential for the young population,high rate of mobile phone users and internet together with the continuouslyimproving technology infrastructure.

Managementagencies and businesses should provide more services that avoid cash toencourage people to use cards.

Creditinstitutions should ensure the security of the payment system while strictlyimplementing regulations to minimize risks.

Expertsalso proposed regulations on businesses requiring payments through banks toincrease transparency of their income and tax management.

Bankswere asked to enhance investment in modern technologies, especially carddevices while improving card service quality. They should also gradually reduceinterest rates and fees to encourage people to adopt card usage.-VNA