AMENDMENTS TO THE CIRCULAR NO. 19/2016/TT-NHNN DATED JUNE 30, 2016 BY THE GOVENOR OF THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM ON BANK CARD OPERATIONS

1. Amendments to Clause 5 and addition of Clause 21a into Article 3:

“5. “co-branded card” means a card that bears both brand names of a switching company in Vietnam and an international card association or a switching company in another country.”

““21a. “Quick Response Code payment” (hereinafter referred to as “QR Code payment”) means the use of QR Code to pay a merchant for goods and services via a card. There are two modes of QR Code, Merchant-Presented QR Code and Consumer-Presented QR Code.”

2. Amendments to Clause 2 and addition of Clause 7, Clause 8 into Article 8:

“2. Directly conducting or facilitating other persons in conducting fraud card transactions or fictitious transactions at merchants (no occurrence of any sale of goods and provision of services).”

“7. A merchant transfers point-of-sale terminals or QR Codes to other users; accepts card payment without entering into card payment agreements; illegally uses point-of-sale terminals or QR Codes of acquirers in Vietnam or foreign acquirers.”

“8. Purchasing, selling, leasing or hiring cards or card information or opening card account on behalf of another person (excluding anonymous prepaid cards).”

3. Amendments to Clause 2 and Clause 5 Article 10:

“2. Before issuing a new card model or changing the current card model, the card issuer must submit a notification of card model to be issued to the State Bank of Vietnam according to the template stated in the Appendix enclosed herewith. If issuing non-physical cards, the card issuer must enclose this written notification with documents about the issuance of non-physical cards as specified in Clause 1 of this Article.”

“5. Before signing an agreement on card issuance and usage, the card issuer must request the cardholder to provide sufficient information and necessary documents for identification as prescribed by law. If a card is issued to a foreigner, the card issuer must request such foreign cardholder to provide necessary documents for verification of his/her stay in Vietnam, including: passport, visa, certificate of temporary residence, temporary residence card, labour contract, admission decision or other documents proving his/her stay in Vietnam.”

4. Amendments to Point b Clause 1 and addition of Clause 3 into Article 12:

“b) Name of switching company of which the card issuer is a member (abbreviated name or trade logo), excluding cards which do not have feature to make payments via switching services provided by switching companies;”

“3. When issuing co-branded card, the card issuer is not allowed to differentiate between trade logo of the Vietnamese switching company and that of the international card association or a foreign switching company (both logos must have the same size and the same type, color logo or black and white logo, and be displayed on the same side of the card)."

5. Amendments to Clause 1 and addition of Clause 1a into Article 14:

“1. The card issuer shall agree with the cardholder about payment limit, transfer limit, cash withdrawal limit and other card-related limits in accordance with regulations herein, regulations of law in force on foreign exchange management and other provisions of law.”

“1a. With regard to overseas cash withdrawal limit, a cardholder may withdraw a maximum amount of cash equivalent to VND 30 million per day.”

6. Amendments to Clause 1 Article 15:

a) Amendments to point c(i) Clause 1 Article 15:

“(i) The cardholder is an eligible entity as prescribed in Clause 1 or Clause 2 Article 16 herein and is not an entity ineligible for credit extension prescribed in Article 126 of the Law on Credit Institutions (as amended);”

b) Addition of Point dd into Clause 1 Article 15:

“dd) Credit limits of credit cards held by individuals prescribed in Clause 1 Article 126 of the Law on Credit Institutions (as amended) are as follows:

(i) For secured credit cards: Credit limit granted to a cardholder shall be subject to determination by the card issuer in conformity with its internal regulations on grant of card-based credit facilities and shall not exceed VND 01 billion;

(ii) For unsecured credit cards: Credit limit granted to a cardholder shall not exceed VND 500 million.

7. Amendments to Point b Clause 1, Clause 2, Point c Clause 3 and addition of Clause 4 into Article 16:

“b) Any person who is 15 to less than 18 years of age and does not have lack of legal capacity or limited legal capacity is permitted to use debit cards, credit cards and prepaid cards.”

“2. For principal cardholders being organizations:  

Organizations being juridical persons duly established and existing under the laws of Vietnam shall be permitted to use all types of cards.

The cardholder being a juridical person may authorize a person in writing to use its card or use supplementary card as prescribed in this Circular.”

“c) A person who is 6 to less than 15 years of age, does not have lack of legal capacity or limited legal capacity, and obtains an authorization in writing made by his/her legal representative to permit him/her to use card shall be permitted to use a debit card or a pre-paid card.”

“4. In addition to the requirements for eligibility to use cards as specified in Clause 1, Clause 3 of this Article, a foreigner is considered eligible to use cards if he/she is permitted to stay in Vietnam for 12 months or longer."

8. Addition of Point dd into Clause 3 Article 17:

“dd) Cards may be used to pay for goods and services purchased and used in accordance with the laws of Vietnam, including those purchased and used overseas.”

9. Amendments to Point b, Point g Clause 1 and Clause 3 Article 18:

“b) Provide customers with instructions about card services, card usage procedures, risks possibly taken during the card usage and actions against problems, prohibited acts while using a card and cardholder’s responsibility in case of violations;”

“g) Closely monitor to ensure that the card-based remittance is conducted for the proper purposes, within the card limit and in accordance with regulations of Law on Foreign Exchange Management.”

“3. Each acquirer shall:

a) cooperate with card issuers, switching companies, clearing companies, merchants, competent authorities and other involved parties in card-related crime prevention and fighting;

b) formulate criteria for selection of qualified merchants and conduct evaluation and classification of merchants that wish to accept card payment in conformity with their specifications and scope of business;

c) have measures for inspection and management of merchants, especially merchants using mPOS.  In case of discovery that or there are well-grounded reasons to believe that a merchant commits any prohibited acts as specified in Article 8 herein, the acquirer must inform the agency in charge of receiving crime-related reports, denunciations and complaints or another competent authority to monitor and implement suitable preventive measures, including termination of card payment agreement concluded with that merchant.”

10. Addition of Clause 2a, Clause 2b, Clause 2c into Article 20:

“2a. A card issuer must adopt at least two methods for receiving requests for tracing and complaints from cardholders, including via telephone exchange (which is available 24/7 and calls shall be automatically recorded) and via transaction points of the card issuer, and verify information received from cardholders.

2b. The card issuer must implement measures for blocking of card immediately when receiving the cardholder’s request on suspension of frauds or loss and assume responsibility for all financial loss incurred by the cardholder from the card usage after the card blocking time.

2c. The card issuer shall formulate the templates of the tracing request and complaint so as to serve cardholders who want to request for tracing or make complaint. In case of receiving a tracing request or complaint via telephone, the card issuer may, if it is necessary in conformity with its internal regulations or as agreed upon between the card issuer and relevant parties, request the cardholder to supplement the tracing request or complaint made according to the prescribed template within a specific length of time in order to use as the basis for handling such tracing request or complaint. The cardholder that wants to authorize a person to make tracing request or complaint must comply with regulations into force of the law on authorization."

11. Amendments to Point b and addition of Point e into Clause 3 Article 22:

“b) Install point of sale terminals or provide QR Codes for merchants, set up transmission lines and provide other technical and operational conditions in service of card payments under agreements concluded with merchants. The acquirer must implement necessary measures for managing its mPOS (such as requesting a specific merchant to specify the scope of using mPOS in the card payment agreement and other necessary measures);”

“e) Request merchants to open payment accounts at the acquirer to receive payments from accepting card payments; request merchants to provide card transaction invoices and vouchers in accordance with the acquirer's regulations or where necessary with the aims of verifying the validity and legality of card transactions;”

12. Amendments to Clause 3 and Clause 4 Article 27:

“3. The card issuer shall send a written notification or data messages of the cases specified in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article to the acquirer; when receiving such written notification or data message from a Vietnamese card issuer or a foreign card issuer or an international card association, the acquirer shall notify it to the merchant.”

“4. A notification of rejection of card payments (including notifications sent by foreign card issuers and international card association) takes effect at the time the involved party in card payment receives a written notification or data message.  In case where an involved party still processes the payment of such card regardless of receipt of the notification resulting in the misuse of the card, the contracting parties shall determine responsibility according to their agreement.”

13. Amendments to Clause 2 Article 32:

“2. Clause 2 Article 24 of this Circular shall come into force as from January 01, 2019.”

The Chief of the Ministry Office, the Director of the Payment Department, the Director of Foreign Exchange Management Department, the Heads of relevant units/divisions affiliated to the State Bank of Vietnam, the Directors of the State Bank Branches of provinces or central-affiliated cities, the Presidents of the Boards of Directors, the Presidents of the Boards of Members and the General Directors (Directors) of credit institutions, branches of foreign banks, switching companies and clearing companies shall implement this Circular.

1. This Circular shall come into force as from March 03, 2018, excluding regulations in Clause 2 and Clause 3 of this Article.

2. Point b Clause 6 Article 1 of this Circular shall come into force as from January 15, 2018.

3. Clause 13 Article 1 of this Circular shall come into force as from January 01, 2018.

4. This Circular nullifies Clause 1 and Clause 6 Article 1 of the Circular No. 30/2016/TT-NHNNdated October 14, 2016 by the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on amendments to Circulars on provision of payment services and intermediary payment services./.