Banks have not been 'ordered' to use software to update information for 11-digit subscribers.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Information and Communications, from September 15, more than 60 million 11-digit mobile subscribers will switch to 10-digit mobile subscribers.

A representative of the State Bank said that commercial banks have agreed to automatically use software to update information for customers. However, the State Bank needs to study and consider this proposal carefully. The reason is thatThis is a legal matter so the Governor has not yet decided on a final solution.

An Asia Commercial Bank leader said,The solution being considered is to use a software to automatically convert once for account holders who register their phone numbers to transact with the bank. With this method, customers will not need to waste time and travel expenses to register to change their phone numbers.

However, he said, the phone number is one of the legal information in banking transactions. When customers open an account, register for services such as SMS Banking, Internet Banking..., this phone number has been committed by the user in the terms of transaction with the bank in writing. And when there is any related change, there must be a request for change from the customer. "Therefore, we are still waiting for specific instructions from the State Bank," he said.

Currently, there are many concerns that using automatic conversion software is convenient for users, but there will be many risks if the "unique" factor of the phone numbers according to the prefix that the network operator has just allocated is not guaranteed. For example, if the bank automatically converts the phone number 0166xxxxxxx of customer A to 036xxxxxxx in the system, if it does not ensure that these two numbers are the same and that no individual has ever used the number 036xxxxxxx before, unnecessary disputes will arise when there is not enough legal basis.

According to estimates from the Ministry of Information and Communications, there are currently about 60 million 11-digit subscribers and 700 VSAT subscribers affected by the network code change plan.

A thousand expertThe bank believes that only the Ministry of Information and Communications, the telecommunications regulatory agency, can confirm this and it needs to be stated in a legal document, not the bank.

Regarding this problem, the Deputy General Director of a joint stock bank based in Ho Chi Minh City said that the Ministry of Information and Communications has agreed that 11-digit subscribers will only change the prefix (new prefix), while the main numbers after that will remain the same. Therefore, in principle, when 11-digit subscribers are converted to 10 digits, these two numbers will still be considered one and the only one.

"At the same time, banks can also apply remote authentication such as phone calls, confirmation messages or email responses... combined with technical guidance documents from the Ministry of Information and Communications, which is still enough legal basis to confirm that the new and old phone numbers are the same owner," he explained.

Meanwhile, a representative of HDBank said that the conversion process is scheduled by the Ministry of Information and Communications from September 15, 2018 to June 2019 for subscribers to use 2 numbers in parallel, so during this time the bank will try to find the most suitable solution for the conversion.

According to estimates by the Ministry of Information and Communications, there are currently about 60 million 11-digit subscribers and 700 VSAT subscribers affected by the network code change plan. Meanwhile, it is estimated that at least tens of millions of 11-digit subscribers who have registered their information with banks will be affected by this change.

The plan to convert 11-digit subscriber numbers to 10-digit numbers will start from 0:00 on September 15, 2018 in three phases and will be completed after June 30, 2019 (recently, some network operators have tested the conversion of some subscribers). Accordingly, Viettel's 11-digit subscribers will be converted from 016x to 03x; Vinaphone will be converted from 012x to 08x and MobiFone will be converted from 012x to 07x.