Protecting customers in payment transactions.

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Customers using services of Nam A Bank. (Photo: TRAN AN)

The rapid development of cashless payments in recent years has contributed to the growth of the digital economy and improved the efficiency of monetary circulation. However, this has also led to an increase in online fraud and scams, creating an urgent need to enhance transparency, security, and protect customer rights in payment transactions.

In light of this situation, the State Bank of Vietnam has been implementing a comprehensive set of solutions to strengthen management, supervision, and risk prevention, ensuring the safety of the system and reinforcing public confidence.

Tighten transaction security.

According to Mr. Le Van Tuyen, Deputy Director of the Payment Department (State Bank of Vietnam), the State Bank of Vietnam has focused on perfecting the legal framework to promote cashless payments and ensure security and safety in payment operations.

The regulatory agency has submitted to the Government several important decrees related to cashless payments, controlled testing mechanisms in the banking sector, and mobile money. It has also issued circulars providing detailed guidance on payment activities, payment intermediaries, opening and using payment accounts, bank card operations, and monitoring key payment systems.

Notably, the new regulations require enhanced customer verification. Customers can only complete electronic payment transactions after their identification documents and biometric information have been fully verified.

With many online transactions, biometric authentication has become a mandatory requirement. Misuse of payment accounts or e-wallets to violate the law will be penalized. These regulations help to curb impersonation and the use of false information, thereby enhancing transparency throughout the system.

Along with institutional improvements, the banking sector has been strongly implementing customer data cleaning efforts, in coordination with the Ministry of Public Security. Through connecting to and utilizing the national population database, chip-embedded citizen identification cards, and the VNeID electronic identification application, credit institutions have gradually verified customer information accurately and eliminated accounts that do not belong to the rightful owners.

According to Mr. Le Hoang Chinh Quang, Director of the Information Technology Department (State Bank of Vietnam), by April 2026, the entire banking sector had nearly 155 million customer records verified using biometrics, including over 153 million individual customers and over 1.9 million institutional customers. The deployment of authentication via chip-embedded citizen identification cards and VNeID has also been expanded to many credit institutions and payment intermediaries.

In addition, the anti-money laundering system has cleaned up all 154 million accounts and 36 million customer records; the National Credit Information Center has also cross-checked tens of millions of records, contributing to improving the quality of data across the entire industry. This result not only helps improve management efficiency but also directly reduces the risk of fraud in payment operations.

Coordinate efforts to prevent fraud early on.

In the context of rising high-tech crime, coordination between the banking sector and relevant ministries and agencies has become urgent. Experience shows that close coordination has yielded significant results.   Protecting people's property.

Recently in Lai Chau, Agribank staff detected unusual activity when a customer withdrew money and promptly notified the police, preventing a sophisticated scam and saving people from significant losses. Beyond simply responding to situations, banks are also proactively deploying technological solutions. Agribank's suspicious transaction alert system has recorded over 200,000 alerts and temporarily suspended over 91,000 risky transactions, preventing transactions totaling over 360 billion VND.

These results show that, without inter-agency coordination mechanisms, individual efforts are unlikely to achieve maximum effectiveness. The State Bank of Vietnam has coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to implement Plan No. 01 on exploiting population data for customer authentication. Following the Government's directive in Official Dispatch No. 29/CĐ-TTg on preventing and combating high-tech crimes, relevant agencies are currently cross-referencing information between mobile phone subscribers and payment account holders, combined with a comprehensive review of bank accounts and SIM cards. This data cross-referencing and synchronization contributes to the timely detection and prevention of fraudulent transactions using fake information.

Along with institutional and data solutions, the State Bank of Vietnam has put into operation the Simultaneous Information Management, Monitoring, and Fraud Prevention System (SIMO). This system allows participating organizations to share information about suspicious accounts, enabling banks to promptly take preventative measures or request additional verification before transactions are processed.

According to data up to April 12th, the system has sent alerts to over 3.7 million customers; of which, more than 1.2 million customers stopped or canceled transactions after receiving the alert, with a total transaction value of nearly 4.17 trillion VND.

Enhancing transparency in payments cannot rely on a single solution; it requires a coordinated effort encompassing legal improvements, data cleaning, technology application, and enhanced inter-sectoral cooperation. The solutions currently being implemented have significantly contributed to ensuring transaction security, mitigating risks, and protecting customer rights, laying the foundation for the sustainable development of cashless payments in Vietnam.

In the coming period, along with continuing to improve mechanisms and policies and enhance the effectiveness of supervision, strengthening public awareness of using safe payment services will be a crucial factor in building a transparent and trustworthy payment environment.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/bao-ve-khach-hang-trong-giao-dich-thanh-toan-5092012.html