Press release on issuance of Circular No. 17/2024/TT-NHNN
Hanoi, June 28, 2024 – The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued Circular No. 17/2024/TT-NHNN regulating the opening and use of payment accounts at the payment service providers.
The Circular is composed of 4 Chapters with 25 Articles, including a number of the following new regulations:
1. Regarding the procedures for opening payment accounts at the banks and the foreign bank branches: For Vietnamese citizens, adding “ID card”, “electronic identification (by accessing their level-2 electronic identification account)” For people of Vietnamese descent with unidentified nationality, adding “Certificate of Identity” For foreigners, adding “or another document that can be used as a replacement to the visa”, “electronic identification (if any)”, in order to ensure consistency with the 2023 Law on Identification, the 2022 Law on Anti-money Laundering, Decree No. 69/2024/ND-CP, etc.
2. Regarding the opening of payment accounts via electronic means, the Circular requires the banks and the foreign bank branches to ensure matching between the biometric features of the payment account owner (for individual customers), or the legitimate representative (for organizational customers) and (i) the biometric data stored in the chip-based ID card of each customer, or (ii) collected and verified biometric data.
3. Supplementing regulations on ensuring the security and safety in opening and using payment accounts, which require the banks and the foreign bank branches to take responsibility for developing procedures for the risk management in the process of opening and using payment accounts.
4. Regarding the use of payment accounts, supplementing regulations stipulating that customers can only make withdrawals and payment transactions via electronic means after their ID cards, biometric features are compared and confirmed matching with the biometric data stored in their chip-based ID cards, the data stored at the National Population Database Center, or the collected and verified biometric data.
5. Regarding the enforcement, the Circular takes effect from July 1, 2024. However, regarding some new regulations, in order to allow the banks and the foreign bank branches to have sufficient time to arrange their implementation, the Circular stipulates the effective dates for a number of new provisions, specially as follows:
- Articles 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 19 (except for Paragraph 3) shall take effect from October 1, 2024 (3 months after the effective date of the Circular);
- For individual customers, point c of Paragraph 5 of Article 17, and Paragraph 3 of Article 19 shall take effect from January 1, 2025 (6 months after the effective date of the Circular);
- For organizational customers, point c of Paragraph 5 of Article 17 shall take effect from July 1, 2025 (1 year after the effective date of the Circular);
- For the credit institutions that are under special control measures, the implementation may be delayed, specifically as follows: (i) Article 16, point c of Paragraph 5 of Article 17 for individual customers’ payment accounts, and Paragraph 3 of Article 19 shall take effect from July 1, 2025; (ii) point c of Paragraph 5 of Article 17 for organizational customers’ payment accounts shall take effect from January 1, 2026.
6. Transitional provisions: For customers opening their payment accounts before October 1, 2024, the banks and the foreign bank branches are required to coordinate with those customers to update their information and supplement necessary documents in order to ensure consistency with the regulations as stated in Article 12 of this Circular, to be completed before January 1, 2026.
Translated by Hai Yen