Vietnam becomes target of int’l card crime

The rate of forged transactions by cards in Vietnam was three times higher than the regional average, local newswire VnExpress reported, citing Nguyen Thu Ha, chairman of the Vietnam Banking Card Association. Ha said the ratio was sometimes up ten folds over the regional level, noting that forged transactions by cards were mostly recorded at points of sale (POS) and e-commerce websites.

Such type of crime is increasingly quickly and this is the latent risk for banks, the chairman warned.  

Experts have said credit card crime is moving from Europe to Asia after European countries applied hi-tech in-card payment. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is the target of credit card criminals after they attacked strongly in Thailand and Malaysia.

Vietnam’s banking card market has developed for almost 20 years. At present, the country has 49 card issuers, which have delivered nearly 27 million cards of over 200 brands.  Card payment network has been expanded with 11,000 ATMs and 32,000 POS, while credit card techniques are not very modern and the legal corridor for this field is not completed. Cooperation among banks to manage risk is also weak.

Bui Quang Tien from the Payment Department of the State Bank of Vietnam worried that POS can collude with criminals to forge transactions. Tien urged banks to tighten control over risks in the credit card business and set up own standards on card payments, plus apply international standards on data security.

(VnExpress )