To continue to pilot the Mobile-Money service until the end of 2024 in Vietnam

To continue to pilot the Mobile-Money service until the end of 2024 in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

Resolution 192/NQ-CP dated November 18, 2023, on extending the time for the pilot implementation of using telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services issued by the Government.

To continue to pilot the Mobile-Money service until the end of 2024 in Vietnam

Specifically, extend the pilot implementation time of using telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services (Mobile-Money) in Decision 316/QD-TTg in 2021 of the Prime Minister approving the pilot implementation of using telecommunications accounts to pay for goods and services of small value as follows: "Enterprises approved by the State Bank of Vietnam to pilot the use of telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services will be piloted until December 31, 2024."

At the same time, the State Bank of Vietnam was assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and relevant agencies to review, research, and report to competent authorities on the promulgation of legal documents regulating Mobile-Money services before May 2024.

Resolution 192/NQ-CP takes effect from the date of signing.

Scope of pilot implementation of Mobile-Money service in Vietnam

Decision 316/QD-TTg of 2021 stipulates the scope of the pilot implementation of Mobile-Money service as follows:

(1) Subjects of pilot implementation:

Enterprises with a License to provide intermediary payment services for e-wallets and a License to establish a public terrestrial mobile telecommunications network using radio frequency bands, or a subsidiary that the Parent Company has a License to establish a public terrestrial mobile telecommunications network using radio frequency bands allowing the use of telecommunications infrastructure, network, and data (hereinafter referred to as Pilot Enterprise).

(2) Target customers:

Individual customers registering and using the Mobile-Money service must provide an Identity Card (ID)/Citizen Identification Card(CID)/Passport that matches the customer's mobile subscription number registration information and be piloted by the Enterprise to identify and authenticate according to the Government's regulations on mobile subscription registration; and the mobile subscription number must have been activated and used continuously for at least 3 consecutive months up to the time of opening registration and using the Mobile-Money service. Each customer can only open 01 Mobile-Money account at each pilot enterprise.

(3) Geographic scope:

The pilot implementation applies nationwide, and businesses implementing the pilot must prioritize the pilot deployment of Mobile-Money services in rural, mountainous, remote, border, and island areas of Vietnam.

(4) Scope of goods and services:

Enterprises implementing the pilot are only allowed to provide Mobile-Money services to transfer money and pay for legal goods and services in Vietnam according to the provisions of current law, to serve the needs of people's lives; The pilot implementation of Mobile-Money service only applies for legal domestic transactions according to Vietnamese law in Vietnamese Dong, payments/money transfers for goods and services provided across borders are not allowed.

(5) Pilot period:

Pilot implementation time: Enterprises approved by the State Bank of Vietnam to pilot the use of telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services will be piloted until December 31, 2024.

Prohibited acts in the Mobile-Money service pilot

- Providing or using other channels and forms (in addition to the channels and forms of deposit and withdrawal prescribed in Section III of Decision 316/QD-TTg) to deposit/withdraw money from Mobile-Money account.

- Providing or using Mobile-Money accounts for operations other than depositing, withdrawing, paying, and transferring money as prescribed in Section III of Decision 316/QD-TTg.

- Enterprises pilot credit granting to customers using Mobile-Money services, paying interest on the Mobile-Money account balance, or any action that may increase the monetary value on the Mobile-Money account compared to the value of money the customer has deposited into the Mobile-Money account.

- Enterprises pilot the implementation of banking activities (lending, capital mobilization).

- Providing or using Mobile-Money accounts to perform transactions for the purpose of money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and other illegal acts.

- Rent, lease, borrow, lend, exchange, give, or buy or sell Mobile-Money accounts, Mobile-Money account information.

- The pilot enterprise uses money from customers' Mobile-Money accounts for other purposes.

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