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Biometric authentication and the SIMO system help prevent over 1.2 million risky transactions In response to rising fraud, the State Bank of Vietnam (NHNN) has implemented a coordinated set of measures to tighten transaction control. By March 20, the banking sector had cross-checked more than 151 million personal records and deployed an information system to support management, monitoring and risk prevention in payment activities (SIMO), which alerted 3.7 million customers; more than 1.2 million transactions were halted with a total value of nearly 4.17 trillion dong. At a press conference on the bank’s Q1-2026 operations results, Mr. Le Van Tuyen, Deputy Head of the Payments Department (NHNN), said that facing rising online fraud, the regulator has implemented numerous measures to strengthen management, monitoring and prevention of payment-related risks. First, NHNN focused on completing the legal framework to ensure security in payments. The agency studied, proposed and issued normative legal documents to promote cashless payments, with regulations issued to strengthen security in payment activities. Specifically, NHNN asked the government to promulgate decrees on cashless payments, a controlled-testing mechanism in banking and mobile money, and circulars detailing the Law on Credit Institutions and related cashless payment content. These circulars cover payment-agent activity; management, operation and use of the National Interbank Electronic Payment System; provision of cashless payment services; opening and using payment accounts at credit institutions; card operations; provision of intermediary payment services; monitoring of key payment systems; licensing to participate in international payment systems of banks and foreign branches. Additionally, NHNN issued the Strategy for Developing Vietnam’s Payment Systems to 2030 to guide the development of cashless payments. Second, NHNN strengthened cooperation with related agencies to implement data cleaning and fraud prevention. It coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to issue a cooperative plan to access and connect the national population database, chip-based citizen IDs and the electronic identification app VNeID to clean data, verify customers accurately and prevent impersonation or use of fake documents in bank sign-ups. Government leadership also instructed to intensify prevention and handling of high-tech crime; NHNN is coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other units to cross-check mobile numbers with payment account data, and the banking sector is conducting a full review of payment accounts and SIM ownership to bolster online fraud prevention. By March 20, the entire banking sector had cross-checked more than 151.4 million personal customer dossiers and more than 1.82 million organizational dossiers using biometric data via chip IDs or the VNeID app. Third, NHNN launched the SIMO information system to support management, monitoring and prevention of fraud risk in payment activities. The system allows member institutions to report suspicious accounts and share information with other members. Based on the centralized SIMO database, banks can block transactions immediately or require account authentication before online transactions. As of April 12, reports from users of the SIMO system show more than 3.7 million customer alerts; more than 1.2 million customers have paused or canceled transactions after warnings, with a total transaction value of nearly 4.17 trillion dong.
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