While small banks want to keep the inter-network cash withdrawal fee unchanged, big banks have been insisting on sharp increases. Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam has turned the green light on the banks’ plan to collect fees after many times of debarring banks from doing this. The disagreement Commercial banks late last week were requested to submit the reports about the investments in the ATM... 

* SBV to launch card switching center by year-end Bank cards are mainly used for cash withdrawal in the country, with the total withdrawn money accounting for 82% of the total transaction value conducted via the ATM system, said the Vietnam Bank Card Association. The association stated bank cards are not used as an efficient non-cash payment instrument. Instead, banks must store a huge sum of cash... 

The Vietnam Banking Card Association has predicted that about 40 million cards would be issued by December 31, 2011. The total turnover of cards of different kinds is estimated to reach 3.2 billion dollars by the end of the year, while the total payment turnover of domestic ATM cards would be 2.4 billion dollars. Market growing fast, but… By June 30, 2011, Vietnam had issued 36 million cards, seven... 

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) has launched a new service that allows its cardholders to transfer money to other banks through automatic teller machines (ATMs), becoming the first institution in the nation to make this kind of transfer possible. This is the outcome of a cooperation deal between ACB and Smartlink Card Services Joint Stock Company that runs the Smartlink card network with 27 bank members. This... 

Half of the more than 32 million ATM cards issued by banks in the country are not used, according to the Vietnam Bank Cards Association (VBCA). An official from the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCM City office said on the condition of anonymity that the number of cards issued could be even higher since a large number of unused ones may not be counted. Yet the number kept growing as banks continued... 

The number of cards issued by commercial banks has been increasing rapidly. However, experts have pointed out that the figures do not truly reflect the real situation, because of the high percentage of “dead cards”. While commercial banks have still been racing to issue more new cards, a big amount of issued cards have become dead cards, because they have not been used by shareholders. According... 

The State Bank of Vietnam has extended the deadline until the end of next year for bank card issuers to change their bank identification number (BIN). The deadline was June 30 this year. The extension was granted after commercial banks asked the central bank said millions of cards had not had their BIN changed. The BIN consists of a single-digit major industry identifier, a six-digit issuer identification... 

Commercial banks are now prioritising increased profits from card payment services as the domestic market now has 28.5 million bank cards which are mainly used just for cash withdrawals. “If the issuing of cards continues to spread at its current rate, the market will be awash with idle and useless cards. Banks should focus on developing the quality of their services and extract value from their... 

Credit and other cards may have come a long way from the high transaction and other fees of the past, with banks now even offering discounts and freebies to attract customers, but they still face hurdles in popularizing the cards. Many banks have tied up with electronics stores, supermarkets, restaurants, spas, and others to offer discounts to card users. Sacombank clients, for instance, get 5-30... 

HCM CITY — Local bank-card companies are promoting the connection of their automatic teller machines (ATM) and point of sale (POS) systems nationwide to create convenience for customers and contribute to the development of non-cash payment tools in Viet Nam. Ly Thi Ngoc, deputy general manager of Viet Nam Bank Card Joint-Stock Co (VNBC), said in May the number of Smartlink cardholders withdrawing...