In recent years, digital
wallet have been a trend in fintech because of the competitive development from
the foreign investors to banks in Vietnam or of large technology companies and
corporations which are also gradually entering the financial technology market
to challenge the conventional banking in Vietnam.
In a nutshell, digital
wallet, also known as online wallet, is an account of payment for the most
popular online transactions such as: payment for electricity, water, tuition,
phone recharge, buying movie tickets, etc. The function of the digital wallet
is operated by linking a bank account, adding money to the wallet and paying
for any associated services in a simple and convenient way.
Besides the benefits,
digital wallet could also bring possible negative impacts and obstacles in
reality. The State realizes the matter and has recently issued policies and
regulations on the management of intermediary payment services in Vietnam in
order to achieve economic efficiency. On 22th Nov in 2019, the
State bank of Viet Nam promulgates the Circular No. 23/2019/TT-NHNN amending,
supplementing some articles of Circular No. 39/2014/TT-NHNN on 11th Dec
in 2014 guiding the intermediary payment services.
One of the new points of
the Circular is the regulation on amending and supplementing of the provision
of digital wallet. Firstly, when opening a digital wallet, customer must
provide, update fully and accurately the information in the digital wallet
opening file to providers of digital wallet services and take responsibility
for the truthfulness of the provided information; providers of digital wallet
services are responsible for checking, comparing and ensuring that the
customer’s application for opening Digital wallet is complete, valid and must
request customer to complete the linking of Digital wallet to their payment
accounts or debit cards which was opened at associated bank before they use
Digital wallet. Customer are allowed to associate Digital wallet with one or
many of their payment accounts or debit cards (Digital wallet owner) which was
opened at associated banks. It can be seen that this new regulation is
reasonable, because Digital wallet are a non-cash payment method. Therefore,
banks need to have specific information of users to avoid situation of one
person opening multiple Wallet accounts for illegal purposes.
Secondly, money to
Digital wallet must deposited from: (i) Customer’s payment account or debit
card (Digital wallet owner) at the bank; (ii) Receiving money from other
Digital wallet opened by the same Providers of Digital wallet services.
Customers can use Digital wallet in order to: (i) Payment for legal goods and
services; (ii) Transfer money to other Digital wallet opened by the same
Providers of Digital wallet services; (iii) Withdraw money from Digital wallet
back to customer’s payment account or debit card (Digital wallet owner) at the
bank. One of the most remarkable thing is the new regulation on the total limit
of transactions via personal Digital wallet of 01 customer at 01 Providers of
Digital wallet services (including transactions of payment for legal goods and
services and money transfer from Digital wallet to other Digital wallet opened
by the same Providers of Digital wallet services) with maximum of VND 100 (one
hundred) million in a month, except for personal Digital wallet of persons having
contracts / agreements acting as payment acceptance units with Providers of
Digital wallet. For organizations, the State Bank does not set the limit for
Digital wallet transactions. The regulation of transaction limits for Digital
wallet aims to minimize the risk of taking advantage of money laundering,
gambling, and performing illegal activities that have been already difficult to
manage.
Finally, The Circular
stipulates the prohibition of using Digital wallet to conduct transactions for
money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, cheating and other violations of
law; Prohibition of rent, lease, borrow, lend Digital wallet or buy and sell
Digital wallet information; Supplementation conditions on tools of supervision
on activities of providing Digital wallet services to the State Bank by
Providers of Digital wallet services.
Lawyers in banking and financial service advisory
desk of ANT Lawyers always follow the development of law, especially in fintech
where changes are fast to cope with the development of technology and market
demand, to provide update to its clients.
ANT Lawyers is a law firm in Vietnam
located in the business centers of Hanoi, Danang, Ho Chi Minh city. We provide
convenient access to our clients. Please contact our lawyers in Vietnam for
advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or call our office at +84 28 730 86 529.
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