Thông tư 17/2021/TT-NHNN

CIRCULAR

ON AMENDMENTS TO CIRCULAR NO. 19/2016/TT-NHNN DATED JUNE 30, 2016 OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE BANK OF VIETNAM ON BANK CARD OPERATIONS

Pursuant to the Law on the State bank of Vietnam dated June 16, 2010;

Pursuant to the Law on Credit Institutions dated June 16, 2010; the Law on amendments to the Law on Credit Institutions dated November 20, 2017;

Pursuant to Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP dated November 22, 2012 of the Government on non-cash payment; Decree No. 80/2016/ND-CP dated July 1, 2016 of the Government on amendments to Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP; Decree No. 16/2019/ND-CP dated February 1, 2019 of the Government on amendments to Decrees on business conditions within the scope of administration of the State bank of Vietnam;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 16/2017/ND-CP dated February 17, 2017 defining the functions, tasks, entitlements and organizational structure of the State bank of Vietnam;

At the request of the Director of the Payment Department;

The Governor of the State Bank promulgates a Circular on amendments to Circular No. 19/2016/TT-NHNN dated June 30, 2016 of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on bank card operations (hereinafter referred to as Circular No. 19/2016/TT-NHNN).

Article 1. Amendments to Circular No. 19/2016/TT-NHNN

1. Clause 12 of Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

“12. Principal cardholder means an individual or organization that bears his/her/its signature to enter into an agreement on card issuance and usage concluded with a card issuer.”.

2. Clause 5 shall be added to Article 9 as follows:

“5. The card issuer shall comply with Specifications of domestic chip cards upon issuance of cards with BINs issued by the State bank according to the conversion roadmap as prescribed in Article 27b hereof. A card issuer under special control shall comply with the conversion roadmap under a decision of the Governor of the State Bank as the case maybe.".

3. Clause 5 Article 10 (amended by clause 3 Article 1 of Circular No. 26/2017/TT-NHNN dated December 29, 2017 of the Governor of the State bank of Vietnam on amendments to Circular No. 19/2016/TT-NHNN) shall be amended as follows:

“5. Before entering into an agreement on card issuance and usage, the card issuer must request the cardholder to provide sufficient information and necessary documents for identification as prescribed by law on anti-money laundering. If a card is issued to a foreigner, the card issuer must request such foreign cardholder to provide necessary documents for verification of his/her stay in Vietnam, including:  passport, visa, certificate of visa exemption, certificate of temporary residence, temporary residence card, employment contract, admission decision or other documents proving his/her stay in Vietnam. Other necessary documents of customer upon entering into an agreement on card issuance and usage, which are originals, or copies accompanying originals for comparison, or electronic copies, or authenticated copies or copies, issued from master register as per the law. In case the copies are presented with the originals for comparison, the card issuer shall bear the certification in the copies and be liable for the accuracy of the copies compared to the originals. If the documents are electronic copies, the card issuer shall use technology to collect, inspect and compare to ensure that the electronic copies contain adequate, accurate particulars and match the originals as per the law.”.  

4. Clause 10 shall be added to Article 10 as follows:

“10. The card issuer may issue debit cards, credit cards, personalized prepaid cards to principal cardholders who are individuals using electronic method. The individual cards using electronic method shall be issued in accordance with this Article and Article 10a hereof.”.

5. Article 10a shall be added as follows:

“Article 10a. Issuance of cards using electronic method

1. The card issuer shall develop, issue, and make public the procedures for issuance of individual cards using electronic method in accordance with this Article, law on anti-money laundering, law on electronic transactions, relevant regulations of law concerning prudential measures and confidentiality of information of customers and safe operations of the card issuer, at least containing the following:

a) Collect necessary information and documents before entering into an agreement on card issuance and usage with the customer to identify the customer and transaction limit of the debit card, personalized prepaid card, credit card as prescribed in clause 5 Article 10, clause 3 of this Article and Article 14 hereof, internal regulations of the card issuer and other regulations of law (if any);

b) Inspect, collate, and verify the customer identification information;

c) Warn the customer about prohibited acts during the opening and usage of the card issued electronically;

d) Provide the customer with an agreement on card issuance and usage with the particulars specified in Article 13 hereof and enter into the agreement on card issuance and usage with the customer in accordance with law on electronic transactions;

dd) Notify name of the card issuer, name and trademark of card, card number, validity period (or commencement date of validity) of card, name of cardholder, scope and functions of the card, prohibited acts in law on card usage for customers.

2. The card issuer has discretion over measures, methods, technology to identify and verify the customer for issuance of cards using electronic method; take liability for any risks (if any) and meet the following premium requirements:

a) Having solutions and technologies to collect, check, compare, and ensure the correct match between customer identification information, customer's biometric data (which are biological factors and characteristics associated with the customers for identification purpose, difficult to fake, has a low overlap rate such as fingerprints, face, iris, voice and other biometric factors) with biometric information and factors corresponding on the necessary documents to identify the customer according to the law on anti-money laundering, at the request of the card issuer or with the personal identification data certified by the competent authority or by other credit institutions, foreign bank branches or by the provider of electronic identification and authentication services;

b) Take technical measures to confirm that the identified customer agrees with the contents of the agreement on card issuance and usage;

c) Develop a process of risk management, control and assessment, including measures to prevent acts of impersonation, interference, modification, or falsification of verification of customer identification information before, during, and after issuing the card to the customer; measures to check and verify customer identification information to ensure that the customer who is performing transaction of the card issued electronically is the principal cardholder.  The process of risk management and control must be regularly reviewed and improved based on updated information and data during the rendering of service;

d) Save and store customer identification information and data derived the process of card issuance and use by the customer, such as: customer identification information; the customer's biometric factors; sound, images, video recordings, sound recordings; phone number used for making transactions; transaction log.  The information and data must be stored safely and confidentially, backed up, ensuring the completeness and integrity of the data to serve the inspection, comparison, settlement of trace requests, complaints, disputes and providing information upon request from competent regulatory agencies.  The storage period complies with the law on anti-money laundering.

3. The card issuer shall, based on the applicable technology when identifying and verifying the customer, assess risks and then decide the transaction limit of the customer’s card opened electronically as specified in Clause 2 of this Article, provided that the total transaction limit (including cash withdrawal, wire transfer, payment) of the customer's debit or personalized prepaid card or credit card does not exceed 100 (one hundred) million Vietnam Dong in a month and that customer may neither withdraw cash in foreign currency in foreign countries nor make international payments.

4. The card issuer may decide a transaction limit of a card issued electronically higher than the limit specified in Clause 3 of this Article and allow the customer to withdraw cash in foreign currency in foreign countries or make international payments of one of the following measure is taken:

a) The card issuer applies technology to check and compare the customer's biometrics with citizen biometrics data through the citizen identification database;

b) The card issuer uses video calls to collect, check and verify customer identification information during the card issuance process in order to ensure that the online identification and verification is performed as effectively as the process done in person.  The video call solution must meet at least the following requirements:  ensure safety and security; high resolution; signal continuity; allow audio and visual interaction with the customer in real time to ensure real person identification; store all audio data, images or video recordings, audio recordings during card issuance to the customer;

c) After the cardholder has identified and verified customer information through face-to-face meeting with the cardholder being an individual.

5. The electronic card issuance in this Article does not apply to the entities specified at Point b, Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3, Article 16 of this Circular. The card issuer shall only issue cards by electronic method to individual customers who are foreigners according to Clause 4, Article 16 of this Circular as for debit cards.

6. The granting of credit via overdrafted credit or debit cards, in addition to the compliance with this Article, must also comply with Article 15 of this Circular.”.

6. Point g Clause 1 of Article 13 shall be amended as follows:

 “g. The credit facility agreement to the cardholder, includes: Card facility agreement and changes of card facility agreement, including overdraft limit (for debit cards) and credit limit; interest rates, how interest is charged on the loan, order of recovery of loan principal and interest (for overdrafted credit and debit cards); credit granting period, terms of credit, loan term, minimum sum of repayment, method of repayment, overdue debt fee (if any).  The credit facility agreement concluded with the cardholder may be specified in the agreement on card issuance and usage or in another document;”.

7. Point b Clause 1 of Article 15 shall be amended as follows:  

 “b. The card issuer must issue internal regulations on credit card-based credit facility in accordance with regulations of law on prudential measures in credit facilities, including entities, credit limit, requirements, time limits for credit extension, repayment period restructuring, minimum sum of repayment, applied interest, how interest is charged on the loan, order of recovery of loan principal and interest, overdue debt fee, loan purpose, process of assessment and decision on card-based credit extension in conformity with the rules of specific responsibility of process of assessment and decision on credit extension, debt recovery measures to ensure responsibility of departments in the card issuer during the debt recovery process;”.

8. Clause 2 Article 16 (amended by clause 7 Article 1 of Circular No. 26/2017/TT-NHNN dated December 29, 2017 of Governor of the State Bank on amendments to Circular No. 19/2016/TT-NHNN) shall be amended as follows:

“2. For principal cardholders being organizations: Organizations eligible to open checking accounts may use debit cards.  Organizations being juridical persons duly established and operating under Vietnamese law may use credit cards and personalized prepaid cards.  A cardholder being an organization may authorize an individual to use the organization’s card or to use a supplementary card as prescribed in this Circular.”.

9. Clause 1, Clause 2 of Article 17 shall be amended as follows:

“1. Each cardholder must provide sufficient and accurate information as required by the card issuer upon entering into the agreement on card issuance and usage and take responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided.

2. When using a credit card or a debit card with overact facility, the cardholder must use money properly and make full and due repayment of loan amounts and interests thereof to the card issuer as specified in the agreement concluded with the card issuer.”.

10. Point e shall be added to Clause 3 Article 17 as follows:

 “e. Debit cards, credit cards, personalized prepaid cards issued electronically may neither draw cash in foreign currency in foreign countries nor making international payments except for clause 4 Article 10a hereof.”.

11. Clause 4 shall be added to Article 17 as follows:

“4. The card issuer, acquirer shall perform necessary measures to update, check, review, compare and identify customers during the card use.”.

12. Clause 1a shall be added to Article 22 as follows:

 “1a. The acquirer shall comply with Specifications of domestic chip cards applicable to ATM and Point of Sale terminals of the acquirer according to predetermined roadmap as prescribed in Article 27a hereof. An acquirer under special control shall comply with the conversion roadmap under a decision of the Governor of the State Bank as the case maybe.".

13. Clause 1a shall be added to Article 27 as follows:  

 “1a. The card issuer, the acquirer, the merchant may refuse card payment if they have reasonable doubts as to truthfulness and transaction purpose of the card holder in accordance with the law on anti-money laundering.”.

14. Clause 3 of Article 28 shall be amended as follows:

“3. The card issuer shall send a schedule of service fees and charges upon the request of the State bank for supervision.”

15. Point d shall be added to Clause 1 Article 31 as follows:

“d) Act as a focal point to coordinate with relevant units in formulating and submitting to the Governor of the State Bank for promulgation a decision on the roadmap for converting domestic chip cards for each credit institution and foreign bank branch put under special control”.

Article 2. Implementation

The Chief officers, Directors of Payment Department, Heads of affiliates of the State Bank of Vietnam; credit institutions, branches of foreign banks, switching companies and clearing houses shall implement this Circular.

Article 3. Entry into force

1. This Circular comes into force from January 1, 2022.

2. Within 6 months from the effective date of this Circular, the card issuer shall take necessary measures to notify the customers of the new regulations related to the agreement on card issuance and usage as prescribed in Clause 6, Article 1 of this Circular in the forms specified in the agreement on card issuance and usage, written agreement with the customer and on the official website of the card issuer.  For card issuance and usage agreements entered into before the effective date of this Circular and in accordance with the law at the time of conclusion, the card issuers shall re-enter into other agreements on issuance and usage or written agreements with the customers in accordance with this Circular upon the customer's request.

3. This Circular annuls Clauses 2 and 3, Article 1 of Circular No. 41/2018/TT-NHNN dated December 28, 2018 of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on amendments to Circular No. 19/ 2016/TT-NHNN and Clause 4, Article 1 of Circular No. 28/2019/TT-NHNN dated December 25, 2019 of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on amendments to Circular No. 19/ 2016/TT-NHNN.