The Surprising Figure on the First Day of Biometric Authentication for Money Transfers

On the evening of July 1st, Bản Việt Bank (BVBank) announced that over 30% of its customers had completed biometric authentication by the end of the day, facilitating smoother transactions. The remaining customers are in the process of setting up and updating their biometric data.

“During the setup process, customers who need to update their personal information can video call our 24/7 support team for assistance with the transition to biometric authentication. For other difficulties, such as issues with NFC scanning, customers can visit our branches for support,” said a BVBank representative.

The first day of the banking industry’s implementation of the State Bank’s new regulation mandating biometric authentication for certain online transactions, such as individual customers’ transfers over 10 million VND or daily transaction values exceeding 20 million VND, encountered some hiccups.

Common issues included discrepancies between the information on the chip-enabled CCCD and customers’ previous account opening information, and customers’ phones being unable to read CCCD chip information via NFC. Even some users with the latest iPhone 15 models reported challenges in updating their biometric data.

According to banks, a few glitches are inevitable during the initial days of implementing the new regulation.

However, surprisingly, statistics showed that transactions valued at over 10 million VND accounted for 8.8% of the total transaction value on July 1st. While this figure is higher than the June average of 8%, it is not excessively high. The number of transactions above 10 million VND that encountered difficulties or glitches was not significant compared to the total daily transaction volume of the system.

Previously, data from the State Bank indicated that about 70% of individual payment transactions in Vietnam were valued at less than 1 million VND. Transactions over 10 million VND accounted for approximately 11% of the total transactions, and the number of people with daily transactions exceeding 20 million VND was less than 1%. Therefore, biometric authentication has not significantly impacted users’ transactions and payments.

According to statistics as of the end of 2023, the Ministry of Public Security had issued over 84.7 million chip-enabled CCCDs and 70.2 million VneID accounts. This data serves as a crucial input for the banking industry to implement identification and verification of customers accurately.

“In the future, when the Ministry of Public Security provides electronic identification and authentication services, banks will integrate Mobile Banking and Internet Banking applications with the electronic identification and authentication system. This will enable customers to register biometric information through the electronic identity account provided by the Ministry of Public Security,” said a representative of the State Bank.