Banks are phasing out magnetic stripe cards and switching entirely to chip cards.

Since September, a number of commercial banks have announced they will stop accepting magnetic stripe cards and will only provide banking services for chip cards in order to reduce transaction risks and increase security.

According to Circular 20 of 2020 issued by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) regulating banking card operations, the deadline is December 31, 2021, by which time 100% of ATM cards and point-of-sale card acceptance devices operating in Vietnam by card payment organizations must comply with the basic standards for domestic chip cards.

The circular also sets a deadline of March 31, 2021, by which time card-issuing organizations issuing cards with BINs (issuer codes) issued by the State Bank of Vietnam must comply with the standards for domestic chip cards.

Many banks have completely switched to chip-based cards. Photo: Nam Khanh.

With the State Bank of Vietnam issuing Circular 20, banks stopped issuing magnetic stripe cards from 2021 onwards, and simultaneously issued contactless chip debit cards free of charge. To allow customers time to transition, banks still allow transactions using magnetic stripe cards.

However, recently, many banks have decided to phase out magnetic stripe cards in order to enhance customer security and comply with the State Bank of Vietnam's regulations on card usage.

VPBank is the latest bank to announce the suspension of magnetic stripe card transactions starting October 10th. VPBank customers who have not yet switched to chip cards will have one month to register for a new card. While waiting for the new card to be issued, customers can still deposit/withdraw cash, but not using magnetic stripe cards; instead, they can use QR codes at ATMs.

Meanwhile, Sacombank has also just announced that it will stop accepting magnetic stripe cards from October 31st. Therefore, customers currently using magnetic stripe cards from this bank have less than a month to switch to chip cards.

Previously, Viet Capital Bank (BVBank) also stopped providing services for magnetic stripe cards and completely replaced them with chip cards starting from September 20th.

Meanwhile, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB ) officially stopped accepting magnetic stripe cards from September 4th.

Also in September, Eximbank announced it would cease accepting card transactions effective September 10th.

Banks affirm that they do not request customers to provide any card information or images of identification documents via SMS/Zalo/Email to cancel, replace, or process cards for any other card-related transactions. Therefore, cardholders should absolutely not provide any personal information to others to avoid being exploited by fraudsters.

There are two ways to convert a magnetic stripe card to a chip card. The first way is for customers to simply bring their identity card or citizen identification card to the nearest branch/transaction office to cancel their magnetic stripe card and receive a new chip card free of charge.

Alternatively, customers can access digital banking applications or mobile banking to apply for and receive their cards at home or at a bank branch.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ngan-hang-khai-tu-the-tu-chuyen-han-sang-the-chip-2330830.html