The State Bank of Vietnam reported on its participation in ASEAN central bank and finance ministry dialogues in Kuala Lumpur, where Deputy Governor Nguyen Ngoc Canh set out priorities on regional payment connectivity and digital transformation, and pushed for a more coordinated approach to combating cross-border financial scams. The delegation also discussed trade and investment prospects and sustainable development with the US-ASEAN Business Council, the EU-ASEAN Business Council and the ASEAN Business Advisory Council. Discussions covered supply chain resilience, banking digitalisation and sustainability, alongside messaging on expanding the use of regional instant payment systems and supporting ASEAN’s transition through finance, technology transfer and capacity building. On digital finance, Nguyen highlighted the importance of digital payments for small and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory harmonisation and cross-border digital infrastructure, and stressed the urgency of preventing and responding to fraud and scams. He also flagged potential implications of the ASEAN Business Entity initiative for existing ASEAN frameworks, arguing that capital account liberalisation should remain balanced and cautious and be paired with strong safeguards to manage capital flows and protect balance of payments stability, and that any new entity type and related incentives should align with domestic laws, trade commitments and the most-favoured-nation principle, with financial stability treated as the top priority. In a separate dialogue with financial institution CEOs focused on scams, participants cited increasingly sophisticated digital fraud via social media, e-commerce, SMS and OTT messaging, with estimated losses of USD 688.4 billion across Asia in 2024 and low recovery rates of around 5% given rapid fund withdrawals. Nguyen outlined measures taken in Vietnam including biometric authentication for online transactions and the issuance of cybersecurity information security standards, and called for broader cooperation across banks, law enforcement, telecoms, platforms and device and operating system providers.

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