This move aims to comply with the State Bank's Regulations on standards for domestic chip card establishments and improve security, prevent fraudulent and counterfeit card transactions.
According to the official announcement from Agribank, from July 1, 2025, the bank will stop all transactions via the domestic strip issued by Agribank.
Stop accepting domestic cards issued by other banks at ATM/CDM and Agribank's payment acceptance unit.
Pay all unconverted domestic debit cards to chip cards.
Customers who have not converted their cards will not be able to make basic transactions such as withdrawing money, transferring money, and paying by card after the above time.
Agribank is managing more than 18.3 million cards, of which the majority are domestic debit cards. The suspension of all magnetic cards may affect millions of customers who have not yet upgraded to chip cards.
From April 9 to June 30, 2025, Agribank will implement a free domestic chip card issuance program and free annual fees for the first year for customers making conversions.
According to the introduction, Agribank domestic chip cards integrate contactless payment technology, improve security and support international transactions in Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Russia.
Agribank guides that customers can switch to chip cards via:
Agribank E-Mobile Banking application (Agribank Plus).
Directly at Agribank branches or transaction offices nationwide.
For detailed information, people can contact Agribank's hotline for support.
Not only Agribank, a series of major banks are also implementing plans to close magnetic cards, completely moving them to domestic chip cards to comply with the State Bank's roadmap and enhance security.
At Vietcombank, since May 2025, the bank has stopped issuing new magnetic cards and announced that the old card locks have not been converted. VietinBank and BIDV are also sending warnings to customers, requesting early chip card conversion. Some banks such as MB, ACB, TPBank have converted 90-100% of their debit card numbers to chip technology.
Users who have not changed their chip cards may be denied transactions at ATMs and POS, causing payment interruptions in the coming time.
