Digital Payments & Fintech - Vietnam

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is the sole licensing authority. Decree 52/2024/ND-CP (issued 15 May 2024, effective 1 July 2024) replaced Decree 101/2012 and is synchronized with the Law on Credit Institutions 2024, both effective 1 July 2024.

Non-bank providers must hold an SBV intermediary payment services license covering financial switching, electronic clearing, e-wallets, payment gateways, and collection/payment order services. The license runs 10 years and is renewable, with processing up to 60 working days.

Decree 52 gave Vietnam its first statutory e-money definition (VND value prepaid and stored electronically via banks or licensed e-wallet providers). Minimum paid-up capital for switching/clearing services was raised to VND 300 billion (from VND 50 billion).

The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) operates the core 24/7 instant retail transfer system and the interoperable VietQR standard (launched 2021), with a person-to-merchant (P2M) QR standard being rolled out from 2025.

No standalone open-banking law exists; instead Decree 94/2025/ND-CP (effective 1 July 2025) created an SBV-supervised regulatory sandbox of up to two years for three solutions: credit scoring, open-API data sharing (open banking), and peer-to-peer lending.

Buy-now-pay-later is growing rapidly but has no dedicated framework; the SBV has signalled future rules (late-fee caps, mandatory repayment disclosures, credit checks) anticipated around 2025–26, leaving BNPL currently outside a specific licensing regime.