There were some 11 million active bank cards in HCM City until the end of June, up 3 per cent from December last year, according to a report from the State Bank of Viet Nam’s HCM City branch.

Domestic cards accounted for 76.8 per cent of the total, down against 78.5 per cent in December last year, while international cards made up 23.2 per cent, up against 21.5 per cent in December last year.

The number of card accepting units was 21,900, up 4 per cent from the end of 2016. The growth rate of card accepting units differed among banks, as banks with large number of card accepting units witnessed slower growth and vice versa.

At present, HCM City also has 38,000 active Points of Sale (POS), up 4 per cent from 2016.

E-banking services continued to attract customers, effectively contributing to the development of non-cash payment in the city. In the first six months of 2017, non-cash payment showed an increasing trend, with people gradually beginning to use ATM cards to make payments instead of only withdrawing cash to spend.

This was reflected in the decreased number of cash withdrawals via ATM compared with the last quarter of 2016. The number at Vietcombank’s HCM City branch was down 6.7 per cent, BIDV’s HCM City branch was down 2.7 per cent and Sacombank and ACB were down 4.6 per cent each.

At the same time, the number of non-cash transactions of domestic cards through POS continued to increase. Specifically, compared with the same period in 2016, transactions via POS of Vietcombank’s HCM City branch rose 37 per cent, while Sacombank and Eximbank rose 26 per cent and 56.3 per cent, respectively. — VNS