Transaction at a bank in Ha Noi. The banking system makes a record point of sale transactions worth US$3.57 billion in the first half of this year. — Photo vietstock.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub)  — Viet Nam's banking system recorded 14.6 million point-of-sale (POS) transactions worth VND75.7 trillion (US$3.57 billion) in the first half of this year.

The State Bank of Viet Nam's statistics cited by showed that commercial banks managed 149,000 POS in H1, up 15 per cent against the end of last year, meeting 75 per cent of the year's target.

The big four banks by assets in Viet Nam, namely, Vietinbank (49,600), Vietcombank (49,400), BIDV (10,600) and Agribank (9,100), own 80 per cent of the POS.

About 30 per cent of the total POS are in Ha Noi (19,200) and HCM City (28,000).

The central bank aims to cut the cash ratio to less than 11 per cent of the total money supply by the end of 2014, and raise the number of POS to touch 250,000 for handling 200 million transactions yearly.

Earlier, the Viet Nam Bank Card Association's report said that 68.55 million bank cards were in use in the Vietnamese market at the end of the first quarter of 2014. This is an increase of 3.5 per cent against 2013.

The growing popularity of bank cards is said to be reducing the share of cash transactions in the total money supply, from 20.3 per cent in 2004 to 12 per cent by the end of 2013.

However, the association warned that most of the card transactions were money withdrawals, while the use of other payment services such as POS or money transfers was still at a modest level. The infrastructure of the bank card market needs to be improved to prevent congestion.

The service fees for internet banking in Viet Nam is usually between VND10,000 and VND20,000, or between 47 and 96 US cents, per transaction depending on the type and destination of the transaction. — VNS