Principles of carrying out payment agent operation in Vietnam from July 01, 2024

Principles of carrying out payment agent operation in Vietnam from July 01, 2024 (Image from the internet)

On June 21, 2024, the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam issued Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN regulating operation of payment agents.

Principles of carrying out payment agent operation in Vietnam from July 01, 2024​

Principles of carrying out payment agent operation are specified in Article 7 of Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN as follows:

- The appointment of an Agent shall be made into a written agreement between the Principal and the Agent in accordance with regulations of this Circular and other relevant regulations of law.

- A Principal reserves the right to appoint an Agent to perform the professional operations which are specified in Article 4 this Circular and conformable with the License for establishment and operation or Establishment license or Decision stipulating its organization and operation issued by a competent authority and documents amending the License or Decision (if any) of the Principal and the Agent being a credit institution or foreign bank branch.

- The Agent must not subcontract any third party to act as an Agent.

- Upon carrying out professional operations specified in clause 3 Article 4 of this Circular, the Agent being another organization shall open and maintain its checking account at the Principal to perform the appointed professional operations within the balance agreed to by the Principal and the Agent; this checking account must be separated from the checking accounts opened at the Principal serving other activities and purposes of the Agent.

- The Principal shall collect clients’ fees through the Agent at the rate prescribed by the Principal from time to time. The Principal and the Agent shall not collect any fee outside the Table of Fees prescribed by announced by the Principal. The Table of Service Fees of the Principal must explicitly state types of fees and rate applying to each service, comply with regulations of law and be openly posted at payment agent’s points and on the Agent’s website.

- The Principal and the Agent must make a commitment to protecting confidentiality of client’s information in accordance with regulations of the Law on Credit Institutions 2024 of Vietnam, its guiding documents and other relevant regulations of law.

- Every Principal may enter into payment agency agreements with other organizations nationwide.  The number of payment agent’s points of other organizations located in rural districts (excluding urban districts, district-level towns, provincial-affiliated cities, cities under central-affiliated cities) in provinces and central-affiliated cities must account for more than 70% of total number of payment agent’s points of the Principal.

- The number of payment agents being credit institutions and foreign bank branches shall be decided by the Principal itself within its managerial capability; the number of payment agents of credit institutions and foreign bank branches shall be decided by the credit institutions and foreign bank branches on the basis of their operating network.

Contents to be specified in payment agency agreement

A payment agency agreement shall contain at least the following contents:

- Name and address of the Principal, its legal representative or authorized representative;

- Name and address of the Agent, its legal representative or authorized representative;

- Scope of agent appointment, including details of appointed operations and limit applicable to clients and the Agent;

- Time limit for agent appointment;

- Daily transaction times and working hours;  

- Payment agency fee;

- Number of agent’s points or list of agent’s points;

- Rights and obligations of the Principal and the Agent;

- Method of dispute resolution;

- Termination of payment agency agreement.

Apart from the contents mentioned above, the parties may agree to other contents to be specified in the payment agency agreement in accordance with regulations of Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN and other relevant regulations of law.

(Article 8 Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN)

Nguyen Ngoc Que Anh

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