Vietnamese consumers were using 76.13 million bank cards as of October,up 15 percent against December last year, according to statistics fromthe State Bank of Vietnam.
This number included 68.08 million domestic cards and 8.05 million international cards.
Whilecommercial banks offered several promotion programmes to encourage theuse of credit cards, these accounted for barely 4 percent of total bankcards. Only 3.04 million were credit cards while 69.83 million weredebit cards and 3.26 million were pre-paid cards.
The growth rate of credit cards also declined from last year to 25 percent.
Thecentral bank also reported that the country had 15,809 automated tellermachines (ATMs) by October, up 3.6 percent against last year. Thisincluded 159,067 point of sale (POS) devices, up 23.1 percent againstlast year.
The Government aims to cut cash payments from 14percent of all transactions in Vietnam in 2011 to less than 11 percentby the end of 2015.
The plan also focuses on the development ofcard payment services, with the aim of developing 250,000 POS that canaccept about 200 million card payments per year by 2015.
Industryinsiders said that bank cards were currently not widely accepted, andthat electronic payment methods must be diversified to support thedevelopment of e-commerce in Vietnam.
The SBV recentlyestablished an interbank electronic payment system connecting 66 membersunder the SBV and 463 branches of 94 credit institutions in order tocreate conditions for the development of e-commerce.-VNA
This number included 68.08 million domestic cards and 8.05 million international cards.
Whilecommercial banks offered several promotion programmes to encourage theuse of credit cards, these accounted for barely 4 percent of total bankcards. Only 3.04 million were credit cards while 69.83 million weredebit cards and 3.26 million were pre-paid cards.
The growth rate of credit cards also declined from last year to 25 percent.
Thecentral bank also reported that the country had 15,809 automated tellermachines (ATMs) by October, up 3.6 percent against last year. Thisincluded 159,067 point of sale (POS) devices, up 23.1 percent againstlast year.
The Government aims to cut cash payments from 14percent of all transactions in Vietnam in 2011 to less than 11 percentby the end of 2015.
The plan also focuses on the development ofcard payment services, with the aim of developing 250,000 POS that canaccept about 200 million card payments per year by 2015.
Industryinsiders said that bank cards were currently not widely accepted, andthat electronic payment methods must be diversified to support thedevelopment of e-commerce in Vietnam.
The SBV recentlyestablished an interbank electronic payment system connecting 66 membersunder the SBV and 463 branches of 94 credit institutions in order tocreate conditions for the development of e-commerce.-VNA
