Commercial banks in Vietnam were due to begin closing bank accounts that have not completed biometric identity authentication from 1 September 2025, under a clean-up that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has described as a measure to cleanse the payment system. Nearly 86 million of the roughly 200 million accounts in the country were identified as inactive once biometric checks were carried out.
Phạm Anh Tuấn, director of the SBV's Payment Department, said on 2 June 2025 that about 113 million personal accounts and more than 711,000 organisational accounts remained valid after biometric verification against the national population database. The remaining accounts, close to 86 million, were classed as inactive, dormant or fraudulent: accounts that had been opened but could not be matched to a verified identity. Banks planned to close all accounts that had not completed authentication from September.
HOW VERIFICATION WORKS
The requirements are set out in the SBV's Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN. Customers verify their identity using facial biometrics matched against the data held on chip-based citizen identity cards or through the VNeID digital identity account, while holders of non-chip identity cards are checked against biometric records in the National Population Database. Foreign nationals verify in person. Verification can be completed through mobile banking apps or at bank branches.
Restrictions on online transactions for personal accounts without updated biometric data applied from 1 January 2025. For organisations, legal representatives had until 1 July 2025 to complete verification, after which unverified corporate accounts faced temporary suspension of digital payment and withdrawal services.
FRAUD PREVENTION
The SBV has said the measures are intended to prevent fraud schemes that rely on fake accounts to receive money, as well as unauthorised withdrawals and money laundering through digital banking channels.