The State Bank of Vietnam has issued Circular 17/2024 on opening and using payment accounts and Circular 18/2024 on card activities. These regulations stipulate that banks will cease accepting passports as identification for Vietnamese citizens from early next year.

This new rule applies to all banking operations, including opening new accounts, issuing cards, performing financial transactions at counters, conducting inquiries, and updating personal information.

To comply, customers must use their citizen identity card, ID card, or electronic citizen identity (accessed via the VNeID application) for identity verification. For accounts or cards previously opened using a passport, banks advise customers to update their information before 1/1/2026 to prevent transaction rejections or temporary service suspension.

This initiative follows earlier regulations from the State Bank of Vietnam. Since 1/7/2024, initial biometric authentication has been mandatory for online money transfers of 10 million dong or more per transaction, or a cumulative 20 million dong within a day. According to the roadmap, some online banking transactions have also required biometric authentication since early this year.

The State Bank of Vietnam introduced these regulations to curb the proliferation of "junk" bank accounts, thereby reducing online fraud. Historically, online fraud rings have exploited numerous "junk" accounts and cards to obscure money trails and legitimize illicit funds. Therefore, cleaning up the banking account system is considered a key solution to strengthen defenses against cyber fraud.

Quynh Trang