Visa supports Cashless Day 2024, accelerating Vietnam's digital payments revolution

06/14/2024

Promoting safety and security for consumers and businesses and Vietnam in this year’s Cashless Day theme, with merchant partnerships offering exciting benefits for Visa cardholders

 

Visa, a world leader in digital payments, continues to support Vietnam's annual Cashless Day (Jun 16), aiming to propel the country's digital payments ecosystem. Visa is sponsoring the 6th Cashless Day celebration, organized by the State Bank of Vietnam and Tuoi Tre Newspaper. This year's campaign seeks to engage consumers and businesses with exciting activities and special offers, designed to promote digital payments and expedite Vietnam's transition to a cashless society.

Ms. Dung Dang, Visa Country Manager of Vietnam and Laos, said: "Digital payments are shaping the future of the modern economy in Vietnam, with positive benefits for consumers and businesses. Visa is excited about our ongoing partnership with Cashless Day 2024, helping to enhance cashless transactions throughout the country. This initiative underscores our collective commitment to ensure digital payments benefit all stakeholders in Vietnam’s payment ecosystem, including consumers, merchants, and payment service providers."

Vietnam embraces the digital payment revolution

Visa’s Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2023¹ highlights a significant rise in cashless payments, especially mobile wallet transactions, among Vietnam's merchants. A remarkable 79% of food and dining establishments and 74% of retailers and convenience stores now accept cashless payments.

Meanwhile, Visa’s Asia Pacific Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) Research 2023² further indicates that over 40% of SMBs in Vietnam now accept card payments, acknowledging their critical role in business operations. Two-thirds of these SMBs credit digital payments for positively impacting their revenue, with 80% associating increased turnover with card transactions. This growing acceptance of digital payments has streamlined and secured consumer transactions.

To drive digital payment acceptance in Vietnam, Visa has partnered with Vietnam's leading e-wallet apps - MoMo, VNPAY, and ZaloPay - enabling Visa cardholders to make effortless QR payments. Visa has also introduced Apple Pay in Vietnam by partnering with major issuers in the country, offering a smooth and secure payment option. In the past 10 months, Visa has expanded the point-of-sale marketing at SMB merchants and chain retailers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, boosting the visibility and acceptance of Visa on Apple Pay.

Safety and security are top priorities

With the rapid rise of digital payments in Vietnam, there's been growing fraud and cybercrime. In 2023, Vietnamese businesses had the highest number of cyberthreat incidents in Southeast Asia, with 17.1 million cases³. Hence, this year's Cashless Day theme is "Promoting safe and secure non-cash payments", aimed at raising awareness and fostering secure digital payment practices.

As part of its efforts to promote safety and security in digital payments, Visa has implemented a tokenization strategy that replaces sensitive account information with a unique digital identifier. This security measure not only enhances security but also allows consumers to manage their data-sharing preferences via their bank's apps. To date, Visa has issued over 1 billion tokens in the Asia-Pacific region⁴.

In an additional effort to enhance digital security, Visa participated in the Vietnam Security Summit 2024, where Mr. Abhijit Bandyopadhyay, Director of Risk Advisory Practice for Visa Consulting & Analytics, shared insights on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in payment security technologies.

Ms. Dung Dang added: "In our digitally interconnected world, payment security is crucial. AI and tokenization offer benefits beyond traditional methods, reducing cyber threats and enhancing protection. Visa continues to leverage these solutions to build a secure payment environment that customers and businesses can trust."

Merchant partners providing significant benefits for Visa cardholders

Continuing its active engagement in Cashless Day, Visa is enhancing its support for consumers and businesses this year with a variety of exciting promotions encouraging cashless transactions on Gojek, Klook, Lazada, UrBox, etc.

A key highlight is the Visa-Starbucks strategic, long-term partnership aimed at encouraging cashless payments at Starbucks stores and supporting their transition to cashless transactions, increasing the number of such stores by nearly 15% this year. This initiative is also part of Starbucks' plan to pilot the cashless payment experience in 2024. Starbucks is one of Visa’s top performers in contactless transactions, with rates reaching up to 93%. Until the end of June 2024, customers can enjoy a "Free Upsize" from Tall (the smallest size) on their favorite Starbucks drinks when paying contactless with Visa. Additionally, Starbucks will participate in Visa’s activation by supporting the Cashless Day campaign on 29-30/6 at Lotte Mart, 54 Lieu Giai Street, Cong Vi Ward, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi.

Other offers include up to 50% off at premium restaurants, complimentary set menus at MICHELIN-starred restaurants, and half-price weekend stays at five-star hotels⁵. Notably, on June 27, to celebrate the achievements of the culinary community, Visa will partner with MICHELIN for the MICHELIN Guide Ceremony Hanoi | Ho Chi Minh City | Da Nang 2024. The event will be held at the InterContinental Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, promising exciting experiences for attendees.

As part of the Cashless Day festivities, Visa Commercial cardholders can earn triple bonus rewards when using their Visa Commercial cards to buy Vietnam Airlines flights online, and receive a 20% discount on MISA AMIS software, 40% discount on the Xanh SM app and discounts of up to 50% on Be­­, Grab and via the Visa Dining platform.⁶

At Visa’s Experience Booth on Nguyen Hue walking street (14-16/6), customers can participate in activities, including discounted Bliss ice cream for VND 16,600 when using cashless payments and a photobooth for Instagrammable moments. For more information, visit: https://www.facebook.com/VisaVN.

 

___________________________________________

¹ The Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study was prepared by CLEAR M&C Saatchi in Oct-Nov 2023, surveyed amongst 6,550 consumers in Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The study conducted interviews with 1.000 Vietnamese consumers across the country who are working part or full time with a demographic mix that sought to create a representative mix of ages (18-65), genders and income levels.

² 350 SMBs – primarily micro SMBS and women-led SMBs in Vietnam – were surveyed about the impact of using digital payments for their revenue, business management and societal impact, from September to October 2023.

³ According to data from global cybersecurity company Kaspersky: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-firms-face-highest-local-cyberthreats-in-southeast-asia-kaspersky-4731486.html.

⁴ Number of tokens issued on Visa systems associated with Issuers licensed in Asia Pacific region as of March 2024.

⁵ Terms and conditions apply.

⁶ Terms and conditions apply.

 

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.