Validity of electronic documents in financial operations in Vietnam

Validity of electronic documents in financial operations in Vietnam (Internet image) 

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

1. Validity of electronic documents in financial operations in Vietnam

The validity of electronic documents in financial operations in Vietnam according to Article 5 of Decree 165/2018/ND-CP is as follows:

- Electronic documents must satisfy all requirements for state management and conform to regulations of specialized law. Format, generation, sending and receipt of electronic documents and validity thereof shall comply with the Law on E-Transactions 2005.

- An electronic document shall be considered an original if one of the following methods is adopted:

+ The electronic document is digitally signed by an electronic document originator and relevant responsible organization or individual as prescribed by specialized law.

+ The information system provides a method of ensuring integrity of the electronic document in the sending, receiving and storage process; records that an organization or individual has generated an electronic document and relevant responsible organization or individual has engaged in processing the electronic document, and adopts one of the following methods to authenticate whether the organization or individual generates the electronic document and relevant responsible organization or individual engages in processing the electronic document: digital certificate-based authentication, biometric authentication, authentication using two factors or more, including one-time authentication code or random authentication code.

+ Other methods agreed upon by parties, ensuring the integrity of data, authenticity and non-repudiation in accordance with regulations of the Law on E-Transactions 2005.

2. Regulations on conversion from electronic documents into physical documents in Vietnam

Regulations on conversion from electronic documents into physical documents in Vietnam according to Article 7 of Decree 165/2018/ND-CP are as follows:

- Organizations and individuals may print electronic documents generated by such organizations and individuals and information system administrators may print electronic documents of organizations or individuals under their management from the information system to store or compare information or present them to authorities that have the power to check documents or provide them to organizations and individuals that wish to retrieve or verify information within the scope permitted by the law.

- Organizations and individuals may request information system administrators to confirm e-transactions in writing so that written confirmation can be presented to authorities that have the power to check documents or provided to other organizations and individuals that wish to retrieve or verify information within the scope permitted by the law. When initiated at a regulatory authority, such request and confirmation shall comply with regulations and procedures for providing information in accordance with regulations of the law on access to information.

- The physical document converted from an electronic document must satisfy the following conditions:

+ It sufficiently and accurately specifies contents of the electronic document;

+ There is information showing that the document has been processed on the information system and showing name of the information system or name of the information system administrator;

+ An identification code for the electronic document is available to serve the retrieval or verification of information or full name and signature of the person carrying out the conversion are available;

+ There must be seal of the organization carrying out the conversion in the cases where the conversion is required to be carried out under regulations of law or agreement between parties.

+ Information is retrieved at any time during the normal operation of the information system.

- The physical document converted from an electronic document has the same value as the electronic document unless otherwise prescribed by specialized law.

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