Banks have embarked on the conversion of magnetic payment cards into chip cards for greater security, but the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly slowed down their efforts, making it difficult for them to meet the deadline.

Despite high costs, domestic banks are issuing more chip cards that meet EMV standards to replace magnetic strip cards in order to improve security and meet the central bank’s regulations.

Replacing magnetic strip cards with chip cards is expected to resolve the long-going security issues affecting bank cards, resulting in loss of money and personal data leaks in banks.

The State Bank (SBV) said the process of converting 70 million magnetic cards into chip cards needs to be accelerated to prevent Vietnam from becoming the favorite destination for card crimes.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Ignoring the advice by international card organizations about the low security of magnetic cards, most Vietnamese banks still have not shifted to use chip cards with the higher security.