Customers rush to banks for biometric verification as Jan. 1 deadline nears

In the final weekend before the Jan. 1, 2025, deadline for biometric verification, many customers, especially seniors, rushed to banks instead of completing the process online.

Under a directive from the State Bank of Vietnam, customers who fail to complete biometric verification will not be able to carry out online transactions.

To handle the rush, state-owned banks such as Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank, and BIDV extended their working hours and remained open on weekends.

People visiting banks rather than complete the process online were seniors, technologically challenged people and those lacking chip-based citizen ID cards.

In industrial areas, many factory and company employees flocked to branches during weekends.

Vietcombank branches in these places had to get their employees to work overtime.

VietinBank followed suit. On the morning of Dec. 28, its District 10 branch in HCMC saw a large turnout of customers, mostly hospital staff receiving salaries via their accounts.

A customer in District 10 told VnExpress he was not a regular online user because of his limited tech proficiency, but visited the bank nevertheless to avoid possible disruptions to his banking activities.

VietinBank deputy general director Tran Cong Quynh Lan said 86% of his bank’s customers have completed the biometric verification. VietinBank had required customers to complete the biometric verification even before the regulator made it mandatory, he said.

Vietcombank has been working beyond regular hours, including on weekends, for over a month and will continue to do so through mid-January. By working from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekends, it has doubled the number of biometric verifications.

By Dec. 28 nearly 10 million Vietcombank customers had completed it, 25% of them online through the bank’s app, which is integrated directly with the Ministry of Public Security’s VNeID system, eliminating the need for NFC scanning of chip-based citizen IDs.

Vietcombank was the first to utilize the ministry’s electronic verification service.

Private banks are offering incentives to encourage timely compliance.

ACB is offering customers additional interest of up to 1.6% for online savings for terms of one to three months, and TPBank is giving away free vanity account numbers and offering 0.2% extra interest for savings deposits.

The central bank has made biometric verification compulsory for withdrawing cash, making online payments through banks and finance companies.

But physical card use — at points of sale and ATMs — will remain unaffected.

By Quynh Trang – VnExpress.net – December 30, 2024