Bank transfers are smoother after 3 days of biometrics implementation

The number of customers coming to bank branches for support has decreased.

On Lang Ha Street, Dong Da District (Hanoi) on July 3, the number of customers coming to bank transaction offices to update biometric information has decreased significantly compared to the first two days of July 2024. The situation of overloaded queues waiting for support no longer occurs.

Transaction points of banks: BIDV, MB, TPBank, Techcombank on Lang Ha pit (Dong Da district) have all "cooled down", most people coming to transact can complete biometric authentication under the advice of bank staff.

Ms. Thu Hang (residing on Nguyen Phuc Lai Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi) said: Worried about the overload situation when too many people accessed the App in the first days of July 2024, Ms. Hang updated her biometrics from the end of June 2024. However, Ms. Hang also encountered a notification that facial authentication was unsuccessful when transferring over 10 million VND. On July 2, the access was more stable, and Ms. Hang was able to transfer money.

On the afternoon of July 3, Ms. Nguyen Le Phuong Ngoc, living on 3/32 An Duong Street, Tay Ho District (Hanoi) shared: “When I heard that biometrics had to be used to transfer large amounts of money, I was quite worried. However, when updating biometrics, I found it quite simple. At first, I was also concerned about the scanning sensitivity of different banking apps, but when updating biometrics of accounts of 3 banks TCB, MB, VCB, it was easy to do.”

According to a survey conducted by Tin Tuc reporters on July 3, many bank branches in Thanh Xuan and Cau Giay districts (Hanoi) also had few customers coming to update their biometrics. For customers using incompatible devices or unable to do it themselves, banks continue to deploy special support plans at transaction counters.

A Techcombank Thanh Xuan branch employee said that on July 3, the number of customers coming to authenticate biometrics decreased significantly. Previously, the transaction office was always full of people waiting in line, and many employees worked through lunch. In particular, the peak time fell in the last 2 weeks of June 2024 and the first day of July 2024, when people paid attention to the new regulations. Most of the customers needed NFC scanning support, most of them were elderly.

On the afternoon of July 3, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong, Deputy General Director of Agribank, said that Agribank had nearly 1 million customers successfully authenticated by biometrics, most of whom installed it themselves, with only about 60,000 customers doing it at transaction counters at branches.

In addition to hotline guidance, many Agribank branches have also established mobile teams to support biometric authentication when receiving requests for help from customers such as universities, agencies, and businesses in need of staff. "For customers who report using phones that do not support NFC or those that support NFC but still have problems scanning data, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued a document instructing them to go directly to the bank's transaction counter for support (customers only have to update biometric information once at the bank)," said an Agribank representative.

13 million people have done biometric authentication

According to statistics from the State Bank, as of 10 p.m. on July 2, money transfers have returned to normal compared to other days, the rate of money transfers over 10 million VND is 8.24%, higher than the average in June 2024 (8%). Up to now, the total number of people who have completed biometric authentication is 13 million people ready to make transactions over 10 million VND, while each day there are only 1.8 million transactions over 10 million VND.

Specifically, the number of online money transfer transactions with a value of over 10 million VND on July 2 was more than 1.8 million, with a transaction value of 136,270 billion VND, accounting for 8.4% of the total number of money transfer transactions in the entire system. On July 1, there were 1.7 million transactions, with 133,213 billion VND, accounting for 8.01%.

In June 2024 (before Decision 2345 took effect), the average rate of transactions over 10 million VND per month was only 8%. In order for customers to gradually get used to and implement biometric authentication in online payments conveniently in the first days of implementation and stabilize in the coming time, Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City Branch, said: In addition to continuing to improve and enhance service quality, credit institutions have also determined to continue to do a good job of information, propaganda, consulting, and guiding customers, especially taking care of and promptly handling arising problems.

Taking advantage of the difficulty many customers have in collecting biometrics on banking applications, scammers have impersonated bank employees to contact customers to "assist" with biometric installation and appropriate customers' assets and information.

Currently, Agribank, Vietcombank, Sacombank, ACB… all recommend: Customers only update biometric data on the application of the bank that opened the payment account. Do not update biometric data via any other website or application. Banks absolutely do not ask customers to provide OTP, password, card number… via phone or link. In case customers have difficulty in collecting biometrics, they can contact the call center or go directly to the nearest bank transaction point for support.