Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department, State Bank of Vietnam. Photo: LM
Vietnamnet Global
Vietnam will close tens of millions of bank accounts by September 2025 under new digital payment regulations.
At a press conference for the 2025 “Cashless Day” held on June 2, Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said the central bank has been actively strengthening legal and institutional frameworks to support the development of cashless payments.
With legal backing from the SBV and investments in payment infrastructure, non-cash payments have seen tremendous growth. In 2024, the total value of non-cash transactions reached over 295.2 quadrillion VND (approx. $11.57 trillion), 26 times the GDP. By the end of 2024, 86.97% of citizens aged 15 and above had bank accounts.
Compared to 2023 (87.08%), this represents a slight decline, which Mr. Tuan attributed to the ongoing data cleansing and biometric verification process.
Vietnam previously recorded 200 million bank accounts nationwide. After verification, only 113 million personal accounts and over 711,000 organizational accounts are considered active.
“This is a data-cleansing revolution,” said Tuan. “While the total number of bank accounts remains 200 million, by September 2025, once the legal framework is complete, all accounts without biometric data will be closed to prevent scams and fraud. After seven years of promoting non-cash payments, we are moving toward real efficiency.”
According to the General Statistics Office (now part of the Ministry of Finance), as of December 31, 2024, Vietnam had over 69 million adults aged 15 and above. More than 68 million of them had bank accounts, highlighting how far cashless payment adoption has come.
Tuan also noted that the 2025 “Cashless Day,” now in its seventh year, carries the theme “Non-cash payments driving digital economic development.” The event underscores that digital payments are more than just a transaction method – they are a strategic foundation connecting all sectors of the digital economy.
Cashless payments, he said, form the core of a seamless and evolving digital ecosystem, helping Vietnam move toward a modern, transparent, and inclusive economy.
In line with the national plan on developing cashless payments for the 2021–2025 period (under Decision No. 1813 by the Prime Minister), the SBV has closely collaborated with ministries, local authorities, and stakeholders to build legal frameworks, adopt new technologies, and innovate service models. This has led to a safer, more secure, and more user-friendly payment environment, enhancing customer experience and accelerating the transition to a cashless society.
During the first quarter of 2025, the interbank electronic payment system processed over 35.6 million transactions worth 81.47 quadrillion VND (approx. $3.19 trillion), up 9.6% in volume and 36.81% in value year-over-year.
Non-cash transactions rose 44.43% year-over-year, with Internet banking growing by 40.41%, mobile payments by 39.82%, and QR code transactions by 81.64%.
Vietnam now has nearly 10.4 million Mobile Money accounts, over 72% of which are held by users in rural, remote, and border areas.
As of March 31, 2025, there were 47 licensed e-wallet service providers, with about 30.27 million active e-wallets – representing 65.8% of the 46 million e-wallets issued – holding a total balance exceeding 2.8 trillion VND (approx. $110 million).
To ensure data security and transaction safety, the SBV has worked with the Ministry of Public Security to implement Government Project 06. So far, data for around 57 million loan applicants has been verified against the National Population Database, and biometric data for more than 111.8 million individuals has been cross-checked.
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