E-wallet transaction should not exceed $4,324 per month

The State Bank of Vietnam has issued Circular 23, amending a number of articles of Circular No. 39 guiding payment intermediary services.

Accordingly, transactions to pay for legitimate goods and services and tranfer money between e-wallets are limited to around $4,324 a month. It has crossed out a proposed article capping the transactions’ value at $865 a day.

Users are permitted to use e-wallets to pay for goods and services, transfer money to other users, and credit their checking accounts or debit cards with money withdrawn from their e-wallets.

The central bank bans the use of e-wallets to launder money, sponsor terrorism, cheat, and commit other violations.

E-wallet service providers are forbidden from granting credit to users, pay interest on the balance in their accounts, or taking any action that may increase the amount of money with which the users top up their wallets.

Cashless payment is on the rise in Vietnam as more and more people use e-wallets to pay for groceries, taxi fares, phone and electricity bills, water supply, and plane tickets.  

Vietnam currently has 30 e-wallet service providers licensed by the central bank, including MoMo, Moca, ZaloPay, VNPay, Monpay, and ViettelPay, according to the World & Vietnam Report, the official press agency of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The regulation will take effect on January 7, 2020.