Sean Preston, Visa country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos talks about consumption in Vietnam (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Visa Vietnamannounced at the end of March that its mVisa, a quick response (QR) code-based payment service,will soon be expanded to merchants and consumers in 10 countries, including Vietnam.
mVisa is a mobile payment solution that brings thebenefits of easy and secure digital commerce to financial institutions,merchants and consumers, helping accelerate global migration from cash toelectric payments.
The new payment service will also help merchants reducetheir investments in expensive point-of-sale infrastructure.
Sean Preston, Visa country manager for Vietnam, Cambodiaand Laos, announced that his company was working with banks and merchants sothat the service could come out late this year.
On the same day, Visa announced its 2016 Consumer PaymentAttitudes Study, which said that consumers in Vietnam were increasingly leavingtheir cash at home, with 62 percent preferring to use electronic payments.
“When asked why they are carrying less cash the majorityof consumers said this was because of greater usage of cards and safety concernof carrying cash,” the study said.
Visa said that its findings come on the back of anannouncement that the Vietnamese Government plans to make transactions almosttotally electronic by 2020.
The company’s survey also showed that 83 percent ofrespondents said they shopped online at least once a month, an increase of 11 percentover 2015.
It also uncovered positive attitudes towards some of theless frequently discussed aspects of electronic payments.
For instance, 77 percent of Vietnamese respondents had afavourable view of services that use automated payments to eliminate thephysical process of paying, such as taxi apps.
In addition, 72 percent said that they were comfortablewith the use of biometrics such as fingerprints and face recognition forpayment authentication.
The survey, conducted in October last year, was an onlinestudy of payment behavior and trends across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Respondents were people above the age of 18 with amonthly personal income of 5 million VND and above.-VNA
