Visa joins Vietnam’s 5th Cashless Day celebration

“Visa is excited to be a part of Cashless Day again and to join our partners in promoting the digital transformation of Vietnam,” said Dung Dang, Visa Country Manager for Vietnam and Laos. “Cashless Day is a recognition of a shift in Vietnam towards a faster, more streamlined shopping experience that provides consumers more of what they want. We share the government’s vision of a cashless society, and strive to provide Vietnam’s consumers, businesses and public sector with the most convenient, secure and efficient digital payment solutions.”

Visa has been deeply involved with Cashless Day since its inception and joins in spreading awareness of digital payments and the benefits of a cashless society.

“Every year, Cashless Day takes on more significance as digital payment usage becomes increasingly widespread in Vietnam,” Dung said. “Visa is committed to continuing to invest in financial education and system security to further the country’s digital transformation. We look forward to many more Cashless Day campaigns in the years to come as Vietnam embraces the convenience and security of digital payments.”

At the Cashless Day Conference today, Kelvin Utomo, head of Product and Solutions, Visa Vietnam and Laos, said, “Digital payment, and specifically contactless payment, is a trend that has already become entrenched in much of Asia and is growing rapidly in Vietnam. We have seen a surge of card acceptance points, including terminals, points-of-sale, contactless and QR codes, while payment volume has grown by more than half over the last year. Visa’s exhaustive suite of payment options allows payment providers to meet buyers and sellers wherever they choose to interact.”

On this occasion, Visa is offering discounts and special offers to consumers who use their Visa cards at retailers and other participating merchants. For instance, Starbucks customers will get VND10,000 ($0.43) off any medium or large drink when they make their purchase with their contactless Visa cards. Visa will also offer fun activities at its Cashless Town event June 16 to 18, including Snowee gelato ice cream for VND16,600 ($0.68) when using tap-to-pay and a further 50 per cent discount when using it through Google Pay. The event will also feature a photo booth for offline and online photos, and a chance to win a FIFA Women’s World Cup Adidas ball signed by Huynh Nhu, captain of the Vietnamese women’s football team.

In addition, Visa is also offering discounts and special offers from dozens of companies for Visa Commercial card users, including Qatar Airways, Avis, Adobe, Microsoft, AWS, and Google. As part of the Cashless Day festivities, customers can enjoy bonus rewards miles when using their Visa Platinum, Signature, Infinite or Business/Corporate cards to buy Vietnam Airlines flights, or enjoy a 20 per cent discount when purchasing an Accor Plus Explorer membership card.

Digital payment comes of age in Vietnam

According to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2022, cash usage in Vietnam has fallen since 2020, while 89 per cent of respondents said they use mobile wallets, and 85 per cent use credit and debit cards, primarily for online and contactless payments. In fact, the number of contactless transactions on Visa cards more than doubled in 2022 from the previous year, according to VisaNet statistics. The use of mobile wallets for payments, especially online and QR, also surged in Vietnam in 2022.

The study also revealed that approximately two-thirds of Vietnamese respondents said they expect Vietnam to be a cashless society by 2030. Reflecting this shift towards an expectation of a more convenient and secure shopping experience that digital payments provide, UrBox is offering a loyalty scheme made possible through a card-linked feature on the Visa Offers Platform. Spending becomes more fun when users can accumulate points on up to 20 per cent of the order value when paying with Visa, and redeem those points for countless offers from over 350 brands.

Visa has become the official payment partner of the MICHELIN Guide Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for the next two years. Michelin announced last year that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City would join the list of destinations covered by the MICHELIN Guide’s inspectors, and the first restaurants in those cities to receive the prestigious Michelin star were announced last week.

Bringing SMEs into the digital economy

Visa has spearheaded a range of impactful initiatives aimed at supporting small businesses to access digital payments and increase participation in the digital economy. Visa has already surpassed the halfway mark of its objective to digitise 50 million small- and- medium- sized businesses (SMEs) across the globe.

In Vietnam, Visa recently partnered with SmartPay, a major Vietnamese fintech company, to empower Vietnam’s SMEs with essential tools, such as point-of-sales terminals. Visa has also partnered with Bizzi, another fintech firm supporting SME automation in Vietnam, and Korea's Shinhan Bank to launch an end-to-end SME solution package that includes Visa Business Cards as a convenient payment solution. The Bizzi Spend Management platform is designed to empower businesses to streamline their expense management processes and SME finances that are enabled by Shinhan.

SMEs are increasingly seeking business-to-business (B2B) digital solutions to unlock their potential, and Visa has an expansive range of B2B tools that can ensure that SMEs in Vietnam can tap new markets for distribution and supply, and reliably conduct online transactions. Specifically, with Visa Business Payment Solution Providers (BPSP), businesses can enable B2B payments and have greater control over the payment process with minimum effort. By connecting with Visa’s BPSPs, paying invoices, payroll, and rent to non-Visa accepting suppliers with Visa Commercial cards will maximize their cash flows by leveraging early settlement discount.

Secure payments prioritised

As digital payment usage by Vietnamese consumers and companies increases, so too must their vigilance to protect themselves from fraud and other cybercrime. With the growing threat of cybercrime, companies and organisations must implement a best-practices fraud management strategy that includes identifying risks and assessing the likelihood they will occur, choosing an effective risk mitigation strategy and continuing to review the efficiency of that strategy as threats evolve.

Visa is constantly striving to create and deliver secure digital payment solutions that customers and businesses can rely on. Over the last five years, Visa has invested $10 billion globally to boost cybersecurity and combat fraud. To help to fight cybercrime, protect the payments' ecosystem, and keep consumers and businesses safe, Visa recently updated its Security Roadmap for Vietnam. These new security measures are designed to provide enhanced protection for transactions made online and at physical retailers.

Reflecting Visa’s commitment to digital security for Vietnamese consumers and businesses, Visa has recently participated in the Vietnam Security Summit 2023 hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam, featuring a presentation by Louis Smith, head of Risk for Visa in Southeast Asia.

Team Visa Athletes announced with 100 days to go until the FIFA Women's World Cup Visa, the exclusive payment service partner of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand, joined the celebrations on April 14 to mark 100 days to go and unveil the 31 women football players it is supporting through its Team Visa programme.

Visa launches updated Security Roadmap for Vietnam Visa has announced a series of new payment security measures for Vietnam that will help fight cybercrime and keep consumers and businesses safe.

Visa and SmartPay to boost digital payment solutions for MSMEs Visa and SmartPay announced a partnership on May 17 that will empower micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with the essential tools that they need to compete in the burgeoning digital payment era.