Accept ‘team’ cost for customer experience using chip card

At the request of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), by the end of 2019, at least 30% of ATM cards and 50% of POS devices at points of sale in circulation throughout the country must comply with the standards. base on domestic chip card standard. However, the biggest problem with banks when switching from a card to a chip card is the conversion cost.
“The price to produce a chip is higher than the production of cards from 8 to 10 times. With the number of customers using the bank’s magnetic card is more than 8 million, this conversion will cost a significant amount, ”said Pham Dang Khoa, Deputy Director of Card Center, VietinBank Retail Division. said.

However, VietinBank representative stated: VietinBank is ready to assist customers in converting. The biggest advantage of chip cards is that the information is encrypted and only the issuing bank can read the data in the cards, so the chip cards are difficult to counterfeit. Therefore, the change of customers from magnetic card to chip card will limit the situation of criminals stealing card data to make fake cards to withdraw money.

Also with concerns about the costs incurred, Mr. Pham Duy Hieu, CEO of ABBank said: Investing in a new and modern payment system, the bank has to spend a lot of costs on infrastructure and systems. Card management system, card acceptance equipment. However, with the general trend of the global digital economy, as well as implementing the guidance of the State Bank, ABBank aims to convert 100% of magnetic cards into chip cards by the middle of 2020.

Talking to the News reporter on October 12, Mr. Tran Viet Thang, member of ABBank’s Board of Management, said: The biggest event of ABBank and Vietnam’s card market in May 2019 is that ABBank will continue. coordinated with National Payment Joint Stock Company (Napas) to launch ABBank Youcard contactless chip for domestic payment cards with touchless payment technology. The bank has completed the technical stages, upgrading the existing system such as: Card management system, card personalization system, ATM / POS system … ready for issuing and converting from magnetic cards to local chip cards following the VCCS standard with contactless technology.

“To complete the conversion of all flash cards to chip cards before the deadline of the SBV on December 31, 2020, ABBank is planning to work with the organizations that provide services related to the transport sector. , insurance, health care, education, electricity, water … and government agencies in the public sector to integrate payments on contactless domestic chip cards, “said Tran Viet Thang.

According to Chu Hong Ngoc, Head of Operations Division of VPBank, VPBank has determined that the fee of switching from magnetic card to chip card is free for customers. Currently, the bank has about 1.5 million domestic cards in circulation and more than 500 POS machines, but VPBank will pay the full conversion cost.

Recognizing the feasibility of changing from a magnetic card to a chip card, Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung, General Director of Napas said: The bank has had a strong movement. The proof is that at the beginning of 2019, there was a ceremony to launch chip cards, at that time there were only 7 banks, but now Napas and more than 20 banks are willing to convert chip card technology. By the first quarter of 2020, not only will stop 20 banks and 6 chip card supply organizations, but it will be up to 26 banks and 10 companies supplying chip cards.

Speaking at the Forum of Developing electronic payment ecosystem in 2019 recently, Mr. Nguyen Kim Anh, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam affirmed: Converting domestic payment cards from magnetic cards to chip cards is one in the tasks approved by the Prime Minister in the Cashless Payment Development Scheme. Deploying this task, on October 5, 2018, the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam issued a set of domestic chip card standards, detailing Vietnam’s domestic card specifications in accordance with EMV international standards, preventing tampering. card in physical environment through ATM and POS channels.

Chip cards help banks issuing domestic cards in Vietnam have the potential to expand the payment ecosystem into industries such as health, transportation, insurance, bringing practical benefits and outstanding experiences to people. use the service. The State Bank also issued Circular 41 regulating the roadmap for conversion to chip cards and the conversion route for card acceptance devices at point of sale operating in Vietnam as for card payment organizations until 31 December. 2020 and domestic card issuers in circulation 31/12/2021.

According to SBV statistics, in the first 9 months of 2019, the value of transactions via POS increased by 36.5% over the same period in 2018. By the end of September 2019, the number of cards circulating nationwide was 96.4 million cards with 36 groups. issuers, many different card brands, of which domestic debit cards account for over 90% of total circulation cards. The strong development of card service infrastructure, a significant increase in the number of customers … is the basis for promoting new modern electronic payment services such as e-wallets, Internet banking, mobile banking …

(Source: News Newspaper)