Personal e-wallet can transact up to 20 million VND/day

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has just announced a draft circular to amend and supplement a number of articles of Circular No. 39/2014 on guidance on payment intermediary services. This draft circular adds a series of regulations related to the use of e-wallets by individuals and organizations.

Personal e-wallet can transact up to 20 million/day

Accordingly, the draft adds regulations on maximum transaction limits for e-wallets of individuals and organizations that the old circular did not stipulate.

Specifically, the draft guidelines state that depositing money into a wallet can only be done through the payment account or debit card of the e-wallet owner at a bank or through receiving money from another e-wallet with the same provider.

Money transfer and payment transactions via personal e-wallets will not exceed 20 million VND/day.

E-wallet users are allowed to transfer money to other wallets of the same service provider; pay for legal goods and services; withdraw money from e-wallets to linked bank accounts or debit cards.

However, the total transaction limit of a personal e-wallet will be only 20 million VND/day, and not more than 100 million/month. Allowed transactions include money transfers, payment for legal goods and services on the wallet...

This means that regardless of what transactions customers use related to the balance in their e-wallet, they cannot exceed 20 million/day and 100 million/month.

The draft also stipulates that the total transaction limit of an organizational e-wallet, including similar transactions, must not exceed VND 100 million/day and a maximum of VND 500 million/month.

Customers do not receive interest on their e-wallet balance.

Currently, most bank deposits are subject to a certain interest rate. In addition to term deposits which are subject to the corresponding interest rate, the balance on the payment account or debit card is subject to the bank's non-term deposit interest rate (average of about 0.1-0.5%/year). Therefore, customers still receive a small portion of interest from the balance on the payment account opened at commercial banks.

However, customers will not be eligible for this interest rate on their e-wallet balance. Specifically, the draft of the State Bank stipulates that e-wallet service providers will not be allowed to pay interest on the wallet balance, and will not be allowed to provide credit to wallet users.

E-wallet service providers are required to take appropriate measures to authenticate transactions.

In addition, e-wallet service providers are not allowed to take any action that may increase the currency value in customers' e-wallets.

Suppose, with an amount of 20 million VND in the payment account, if this balance is in a bank account, the customer will receive an interest of about 20,000-100,000 VND/year. However, if the 20 million is left in an e-wallet, the customer will not receive the above interest.

In addition to the above provisions, the draft also stipulates that e-wallet providers must apply necessary authentication measures (including face-to-face meetings or other appropriate measures) if they suspect that customers are using different phone numbers, payment accounts or debit cards to open more than one e-wallet at one provider.

The draft also requires e-wallet service providers to have tools for the State Bank to monitor the activities and total number of wallets opened, the balance of money in e-wallets of all customers at the beginning of the transaction day and at the time of access. These units must also compile monthly reports on the number of wallets, balance of money in wallets, total quantity, value of deposits, withdrawals, payments, etc. of the e-wallets they provide.

According to the explanation of the State Bank, the regulation on transaction limits for e-wallets of individuals and organizations aims to minimize the risk of exploiting e-wallets for money laundering and illegal activities, consistent with the purpose of using e-wallet services to serve small, retail payment transactions.