VietNamNet Bridge - With 80 million magnetic cards in circulation, commercial banks would have to spend trillions of dong to convert them into chip cards to ensure security.

After two months postponing the increase in service fees for ATM cash withdrawals as required by the central bank, some commercial banks have now resumed the plan, announcing that a new service fee framework will apply from the middle of this month.

Over 132 million bank cards had been issued by the end of 2017. However, according to the Vietnam Card Association (VCA), only 77 million cards are being used to make regular transactions.

VietNamNet Bridge - The number of e-banking service users had reached 81 percent by the end of 2017, according to IDG. 

Calls for investing in bitcoin are numerous on the internet, with many ‘secret societies’ set up persuading people to deposit bitcoins.

The shift to digital banking has helped banks to provide modern and convenient services to customers, but this has also exposed them to many security risks, experts said at a conference in Hanoi on Wednesday.

VietNamNet Bridge - Commercial banks appear to be rushing to issue bank cards but Vietnamese still don’t have the habit of making payments with plastic. 

VietNamNet Bridge - ATM services are provided to Vietnamese card holders in accordance with “Vietnamese standards”, but the fees imposed are at “international standards”.

 A flaw in cash machines that allows criminals to quickly steal wads of cash has been discovered.

VietNamNet Bridge – Despite great efforts by the State Bank to encourage use of payment cards, Vietnamese still prefer cash.

VietNamNet Bridge – Card holders have got with 17 kinds of fees charged by commercial banks, while the fees have been increasing rapidly.

 The Hanoi People’s Court on July 10 sentenced Wu Wen Song, a Chinese man, to two and a half years imprisonment on charge of “appropriating secret documents of the State”.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Most banking transactions in Viet Nam, around 80 per cent, will be one through mobile devices in the next five years, says Le Thanh Tam, CEO of International Data Group (IDG) ASEAN.

Reports from cities and provinces revealed that during the first quarter of the year the number of applicants for unemployment insurance declined to over 91,300 people, a decrease of nearly 22 per cent year-on-year.

Casual workers miss out on social insurance; Vietnam earns VND53.5 trillion from tourism services in Q1; Drought pushes up coffee prices; Economic difficulties take their toll on large-caps

VietNamNet Bridge – In the near future, traffic rule violators may pay fines at traffic police stations, via ATMs, not having to go to the treasury or banks any more.

The Cypriot government has warned that banking curbs to prevent money from leaving the country will apply for longer than expected, in a blow to the island's attempts to revive its paralysed economy.

Commercial banks all complain that they have been incurring with ATM services, but they still keep developing ATM services.

A lot of commercial banks have raised the existing banking service fees, while having imposed new kinds of fees. They have been warned that their move may do more harm than good.