The total value of transactions via the automatic teller machines (ATMs) and points of sale (POS) last year surged sharply by 34 per cent against the previous year.

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) reported at a forum on the sustained growth of the banking industry, held in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

By the end of last year, Viet Nam had some 17,558 ATM and 268,813 POS, a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent.

The value of transactions via POS rose by 27 per cent to more than VND318 trillion (US$13.95 billion), while the number of transactions surged sharply by 40 per cent to nearly 136 million.

The ratio of cash withdrawal at ATMs declined to 6.86 per cent late last year against 15.71 per cent in 2016.

Director of SBV’s Payment Department Pham Tien Dung said that payments via internet and mobile phones last year soared by more than 50 per cent, while inter-bank transactions also witnessed a strong growth at 30 per cent, both in volume and value, with a daily transaction revenue of some $10 billion.

Dung attributed the rise to the banking industry’s efforts to apply technological advances in the fourth industrial revolution to develop payment infrastructure, and enhance payment security and safety in recent years.

The SBV has also focused on streamlining legal framework and applying technologies in non-cash payment besides promoting management and supervision in payment.

Besides this, commercial banks have integrated more functions on payment, so that customers can pay for all kinds of bills, from water, electricity and telephone to insurance and transport fee through their bank accounts.

The SBV has so far implemented a plan to develop card payment using card readers at POS and mobile points of sale (mPOS) from 2017 to 2020, which is aimed at boosting the non-cash payment method in Viet Nam, as approved in Decision 2545/QD-TTg by the Prime Minister.

Accordingly, the ratio of cash to total payment instruments will be below 10 per cent by the end of 2020, when the whole market will have more than 300,000 card readers installed at POS to process some 200 million transactions every year. — VNS