Visa permitted to open representative office

Deputy prime minister Vu Khoan officially has signed a decision to permit the State Bank of Vietnam to license Visa International (Asia-Pacific) Ltd to establish its representative office in HCM City on December 8.
Under the decision, the SBV will chair to cooperate with relevant agencies to study to submit an official document to the prime minister on amending and supplementing the prevailing regulations on establishment and operation of representative offices of non-credit foreign organisations specialise in providing banking services and products in Vietnam.
The reason the SBV has to submit the official document to the prime minister to grant license for Visa International (Asia-Pacific) Ltd is because pursuant to the prevailing regulations of the Law on Credit Institutions, Visa is not actually a foreign credit institution so the SBV has not yet been permitted to grant any license for this organisation to establish its representative office in Vietnam.
In fact, this organisation is providing clearing payment services for Vietnamese banks. Owing to rapid development of banking technologies, the appearance of non-credit institutions that participate in providing banking services and products under the form of providing technical infrastructure and payment system like Visa International or the Vietnam Financial Transfer Joint Stock Co (VNSWITCH) is becoming popular in Vietnam.
Currently, some Vietnamese commercial banks have become Visa’s members or have cooperated with Visa to provide banking services such as credit cards and payment cards of all kinds.
The SBV said that managing the operation of non-credit organisations like Visa International (Asia-Pacific) Ltd via granting the license for them to open representative offices in Vietnam will help the SBV succeed in managing monetary and the banking operation of Visa.
Visa International (Asia-Pacific) Ltd, is based in the Delaware State USA. Its major operations are organising and controlling the global payment system for credit card, traveller’s cheques and as well as providing clearing payment service for its members.
Visa, which offers its cards through 10 local and foreign banks in Vietnam, has done business for a decade with the Southeast Asian country from its offices in Bangkok and Singapore. Now, after a decade of reforms, Vietnam’s economy is growing more than 7% a year, lifting incomes and reducing poverty. According to the World Bank, the reforms have paid off, and Vietnam’s per capita income in the past 10 years has more than doubled.
One of Visa’s projects called ” Visa in Vietnam” is aiming to help the company expand its credit-card business by accelerating the development of its infrastructure and popularising the use of credit cards in the region. This year, the project is continuously focusing on equipping merchants to accept electronic payments, especially those made with debit cards. The SBV has also released a document asking banks to take measures to promote non-cash payment methods via bank accounts to create favourable conditions for exporting businesses to open bank accounts and then use them as a payment methods for their export needs.

 

Category: Finance