Vietnamese consumers are continuing to embrace electronic payments making 38 per cent more transactions in the year ended June 2017, Visa said in a release on September 27.

Following its latest study, the company said the numbers of its credit and debit card transactions were up 49 per cent and 34 per cent and payment value, 35 per cent.

More Vietnamese are also shopping online and its e-commerce transactions and payment volume were up 82 per cent and 45 per cent, it said.

Sean Preston, the company’s country manager for Việt Nam, Cambodia and Laos, said: “These numbers are a positive sign for the Vietnamese economy as the country seeks to create a better environment for both consumers and businesses through the electronification of payments.

“One of the really great indicators for us is the strong growth across both credit and debit products – it is a clear sign that we have a broad demographic of people using electronic payments for a variety of purposes.”

Vietnamese customers also demonstrate an eagerness to try new payment methods, he said.

This year his company launched a contactless payment technology called Visa payWave which allows cardholders to make payments by simply waving their card near a point-of-sale terminal for transactions under VNĐ1 million, he said.

The machines have been installed at many supermarkets and further expansion is under way, he added. — VNS