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 prescribing operation of payment agents.

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

The implementation of payment agent operation in Vietnam from July 01, 2024 must comply with the principles specified in Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN of the State Bank of Vietnam, specifically 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 Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN 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 of Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN 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 Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN, 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 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.​

More details can be found in Circular 07/2024/TT-NHNN effective from July 01, 2024.

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