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BC Card announced that on the morning of the 17th, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NAPAS, a Vietnamese state-run payment network operator, on "non-cash payments promotion cooperation." BC Card CEO Choi Won-seok (left) and NAPAS Vice President Nguyen Dang Hong (right) are taking photos.

The stars of Vietnam's financial system have emerged in Euljiro, the financial center of Korea. They are major officials from "NAPAS (National Payment Corporation of Vietnam)," Vietnam's leading state-run payment relay network operator, and 12 Vietnamese commercial banks that issue NAPAS brands. According to NAPAS, as of the end of 2021, Vietnam's total card transactions were $150.5 billion (179 trillion KRW), of which $70.7 billion (84 trillion KRW) was traded at solely these 12 commercial banks.

In particular, it is very exceptional that Vietnam's top 10 most prestigious banks (Vietinbank, Agribank, BIDV, Military Bank, etc.) to visit South Korea altogether. Last year, BC Card acquired "Wire Card Vietnam," the No. 1 company in POS terminal market in Vietnam. Based on its high understanding of the Vietnamese market, BC Card has built trust with various local stakeholders about 40 years of experience in card processing in Korea and faith in technology, so as to lead them to visit South Korea.

BC Card (CEO Choi Won-seok) announced on the morning of the 17th that it signed a MOU with NAPAS, a Vietnamese state-run payment network operator, on "non-cash payments promotion cooperation." The signing ceremony was attended by BC Card CEO Choi Won-seok, NAPAS Vice President Nguyen Tang Hong, Deputy Director of Vietnam Tourism Authority Haban, and major officials from 12 Vietnamese commercial banks.

NAPAS is an institution of the Vietnamese central bank that provides various payment services through 18,000 ATMs and 260,000 POS terminals. With a total of 48 Vietnamese banks as members, NAPAS brand cards are being issued with 100 million members. It has been closely cooperating with BC Card since 2017 due to its business similarity.

The key to this MOU is to enhance the convenience of non-cash payments for Vietnamese tourists visiting Korea, which is linked to the transition to a "cashless society" that the Vietnamese government is pushing for in 2025. In the future, Vietnamese tourists visiting South Korea will be able to shop conveniently through BC Card's largest number of merchants (3.4 million) with their own domestic cards and QR payments without exchange.

According to a report by the Vietnamese central bank, the Vietnamese credit card market has grown 23% every year over the past five years (2017-2021). Vietnamese tourists to South Korea this year ranked fourth after the U.S., China, and the Philippines (about 79,000 as of the end of August). NAPAS has been seeking to expand its international payment network due to the growth of the credit card market and the increase of Vietnamese tourists visiting South Korea, and has cooperated with BC Card as a representative of Korea. It is also the result of BC Card's leading efforts to establish and expand the inter-state payment infrastructure by Network-to-Network (N2N) linkage among countries in Southeast Asia.

Domestic customers and merchants are also expected to have a positive effect. First of all, customers who are scheduled to visit Vietnam will be able to use local merchants with BC Card and Paybooc QR payments. NAPAS has 2.2 million local merchants in Vietnam, so most card-based payments are possible. In terms of domestic merchants, sales are expected to increase due to the increase in Vietnamese tourists.

BC Card will also strengthen cooperation with NAPAS brand issuers (Vietnamese banks). Through this visit, major Vietnamese bank officials had time to experience the domestic NAPAS card payment environment in foreign soil. By looking at BC Card's various digital payment technologies in person, they will preview "cashless society" so as to promote NAPAS card activation in the future.

BC Card CEO Choi Won-seok said, "After COVID-19, Vietnamese use of digital financial services reached 90%, and new payment methods are naturally accepted as a very young country with an average age of 30," adding, "We will continue to make efforts to provide convenient payment experiences to the people of both countries."

Meanwhile, BC Card was exclusively selected as an overseas QR payment partner of the state-run project for digital payments (QRIS), promoted by the Indonesian government in May, and plans to expand and connect inter-state payment networks sequentially from Vietnam to Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand.