The digitalization process enters daily life
Sharing at the Workshop "A touch of trust - Creating a future of digital payments", Mr. Pham Anh Tuan - Director of the Payment Department, State Bank said that the modern payment ecosystem is fundamentally changing the financial experience of people.
In the first 7 months of 2025, transactions via QR codes increased by 66.73% in quantity and 159.58% in value compared to the same period; 87% of adults have bank accounts; many credit institutions recorded over 90% of transactions via digital channels.
"Now, people can pay for electricity, water, tuition or hospital fees with just a few steps on the phone. Thus, the benefits of the digitalization process have brought convenience to daily life" - Mr. Tuan said.
In particular, cashless payments have reached a scale of 25 times GDP in 2024, reflecting the extent of digital transformation in economic life. In the first 8 months of the year, the number of transactions increased by 43.53%, the value increased by 24.24%, showing that people and businesses have truly shifted to modern payment methods.
Digital payment application in public transport
Concluding the Workshop, Mr. Pham Tien Dung - Deputy Governor of the State Bank emphasized the role of bridging and accompanying the press and media: "Without accompanying communication, Vietnam certainly does not have 87% of adults using bank accounts today".
Mr. Pham Tien Dung considers this the key, because without an account, nothing will be realized.
"To open an account for people, in addition to the banking industry providing good and convenient services, people also need to understand, accompany, and respond. Communication is one of the factors that help us do that" - Mr. Dung affirmed.
However, from the opinions of the Hanoi Railway industry, the Deputy Governor of the State Bank said: "To say what, banking services, especially payment services, have developed as they are, but getting on the train, each route still has to wear a card around the neck, which is not fulfilling our responsibility and responsibility to the people".
Accordingly, banks need to strengthen cooperation to process and integrate so that existing payment methods can be used in public transport, especially electricity trains and other means of transport.
Sharing about China's experience in the metro system since 2017, Mr. Dung found that they have applied mobile payment to take the subway. In Japan, in addition to paying for train tickets, mobile applications can also pay for bus tickets, even buy some common goods.
Regarding the opportunity to apply digital payments in the public transport sector, the Deputy Governor of the State Bank said that in terms of payment services, Vietnam is in the group of developed countries, especially in terms of automatic payments - no less advanced countries. Opportunities always come to us. With a large number of people using metro and public transport, this is a big trend, the banking industry needs to focus on handling this problem.
"Solutions must ensure " convenience, benefits, reasonable costs". We cannot let "buy train tickets for 15,000 VND but the transaction processing cost is up to 1,000 VND" - Mr. Dung explained.
Taking people as the center, banks and related units need to continue to accompany people to use the best services. From a practical perspective, Mr. Dung once again affirmed: "In the end, no matter what the sky says, the final result is still for people and businesses to use banking services in the most convenient and affordable way. If I say good things, say good things that no one uses, it's not worth it."
