Banks may apply an electronic Know-your-Client (eKYC) process to open payment accounts, instead of the traditional face-to-face one.
Such is proposed by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in a draft to revise Circular 23 of 2014 guiding the opening and use of payment accounts at payment service providers.
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| Having a modern LiveBank system, TPBank has become the first bank allowed to apply the e-KYC process__Photo: Internet |
Under the draft, eKYC would not be applied to foreigners living in Vietnam, persons aged from 15 to 18 years, and persons aged under 15 years or having lost or restricted civil act capacity or having to open payment accounts through their lawful representatives or guardians because of having difficulties in cognition and behavior control.
Banks would be allowed to decide on measures, forms and technologies to identify and verify clients serving the opening of payment accounts online. However, they would have to take solutions and have technologies for inspection and comparison, ensuring consistency between client identification information (biometric factors) and information written in clients’ personal identification papers certified by competent state agencies or other credit institutions. Other solutions must also be devised by banks to prevent acts of impersonating, intervening, modifying or falsifying the verification of client identification information before, during and after opening payment accounts.
The SBV also requires banks to set a transaction limit for clients who open payment accounts online at the maximum level of VND 100 million (USD 4,300) per client per month.
However, such a limit would not be imposed in three cases. Firstly, banks apply video call technology which enables real-time communication with clients in the process of opening payment accounts. Secondly, clients open payment accounts to make money transfers to their savings accounts or termed deposit accounts opened at the same banks. Lastly, banks have already applied the traditional KYC process to clients.- (VLLF)
