At a press conference launching the 2026 Digital Finance Day programme, the State Bank of Vietnam used the event to set out its current digital finance agenda. Pham Anh Tuan, Director General of the Payment Department, said the central bank is focusing on three areas: revising the legal framework for digital banking and non-cash payments, upgrading national payment infrastructure, and expanding bilateral cross-border retail payments via QR codes, while keeping personal data protection and system security at the centre. He highlighted the sector’s recent scale and usage trends as evidence of the shift to digital payments. By end-2025, nearly 89% of people aged 15 and over had a bank account, and the value of non-cash payments in 2025 was about 28 times GDP. In the first three months of 2026, non-cash payment transactions rose 37.98% by volume and 14.22% by value year on year, with internet, mobile and QR payments all increasing, while ATM transactions fell 9.29% by volume. Many core banking processes are now fully digitised, and several credit institutions conduct more than 90% of transactions through digital channels. The central bank also pointed to its SIMO fraud monitoring system, which had issued more than 4.2 million customer alerts by 17 May 2026, leading more than 1.3 million customers to pause or cancel transactions worth over VND 4.5 trillion. Near-term work includes reviewing and amending legal documents, further upgrading interbank electronic payments and financial switching and clearing systems, and studying a move from basic transfer QR codes to standardised payment QR codes for broader use, including at retail outlets and traditional markets. The State Bank of Vietnam is also continuing bilateral QR payment links already in place with Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China and South Korea, and is pursuing additional country connections.
State Bank of Vietnam2026-05-26
State Bank of Vietnam outlines digital finance priorities including payment QR standardisation and infrastructure upgrades
The State Bank of Vietnam used the launch of its 2026 Digital Finance Day programme to outline a digital finance agenda focused on revising the legal framework for digital banking and non-cash payments, upgrading national payment infrastructure, and expanding bilateral cross-border QR retail payments, with an emphasis on data protection and system security. It reported strong growth in non-cash payments, high levels of digitalisation in banking operations, and active use of its SIMO fraud monitoring system, and plans further legal revisions and broader deployment of standardised payment QR codes and cross-border QR links.