Good morning! Hello to all new readers, and welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly, written by reporter Mike Tatarski in rainy Ho Chi Minh City. The Friday newsletter is always free to read.
On Wednesday, I published a mid-year review for paying supporters focused on two themes: the ongoing failure across all levels to spend the public budget, and the race to shore up the energy supply to prevent a repeat of last year’s power outages.
If you haven’t already, you can upgrade to a paid subscription to access that and all past exclusive articles, in addition to receiving future weekly paid posts.
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On to the news.
The Bank Transfer Regulations
The new bank transfer rules I covered here two weeks ago came into effect on Monday, and the impact has been predictably messy.
To recap: biometric confirmation in the form of facial ID is now required for any transfer over VND10 million (roughly US$392), and all transfers of any size if a customer reaches VND20 million (US$786) worth of transfers in a single day.
Some bank apps let customers upload their data digitally with their passport or national ID, but as VnExpress reported, this rarely worked: people still had to go to their bank in person to validate themselves.
Others were unable to make large transfers even after providing their biometric data.
The State Bank of Vietnam initially dismissed any issues and then blamed problems on a spike in online traffic as people rushed to their bank apps to comply with the new rules. The Ministry of Public Security also denied claims that problems stemmed from the NFC chips in government-issued IDs.
Facebook groups aimed at foreign residents are full of complaints (granted these groups tend to whine a lot, but this has been a significant inconvenience for many). Landlords are surely annoyed this week as many tenants probably haven’t been able to pay rent yet.
If you’re in Vietnam, have you had any banking issues this week?
As Lien Hoang of Nikkei Asia reported, the central bank said these rules are "to ensure the safety and security in online payments and bankcard payments."
This is a noble goal as fraud is rampant, but Lien’s reporting astutely notes that data protection here is abysmal while large-scale hacks are common: Vietnam ranks second in Southeast Asia in number of cyberattacks, while the .vn web domain is among the top five globally for exposure to data-stealing malware.
Losing your password to a data breach is one thing - losing a scan of your face is another.
Indeed, scammers have quickly adapted: Vietcombank warned customers of fraudsters impersonating bank employees while offering “support” for biometric verification.
While attempting to test the security of this system, people found that some bank apps accept a photo as verification, instead of a live facial scan - defeating the whole purpose of the protection.
This will all surely be smoothed out in the coming weeks (that’s not sarcasm), but it’s worth noting again that everyone saw this coming. Similarly bungled rollouts in recent years include the shift to automatic toll collection on expressways and, perhaps most impactfully, new passports introduced in 2022 without place of birth info.
Additional new laws are having an even larger impact on Vietnamese nationals, who now must integrate their driver’s license into the Ministry of Public Security’s VNeID app - a step that is already causing confusion - in addition to providing iris data when applying for a new ID. People can even request for their voice and DNA biometrics to be collected.
Fire Responsibility
Grim updates on several deadly fires in recent years.
Hanoi authorities announced last week that the May blaze which killed 14 people was caused by a short circuit in an electric motorbike.
The structure included two residential buildings with an electric motorbike repair shop operating in the courtyard between them - a common situation where businesses working with potentially flammable materials are directly below living spaces.
Following the horrific fire that killed 56 in Thanh Xuân District, Hanoi last September, there was speculation that an electric motorbike had been the cause - leading apartment buildings across the country to crack down on bike charging.
The police eventually blamed a gas-powered motorbike for that blaze, but the reputational damage had already been done. Let’s see if this latest news causes another backlash against electric motorbikes/bikes.
Two district-level Hanoi officials were recently punished for “violations and shortcomings” related to the September fire, which occurred in a building that was illegally converted into ‘mini apartments.’
In a remarkable admission of how widespread such “shortcomings” are, the deputy director of Hanoi’s police department said that punishing every official responsible for the fire would mean losing the entire government of Thanh Xuân.
Finally, last month, investigators in Bình Dương announced that a former official in the provincial firefighting department had falsified fire safety documents for the An Phu Karaoke bar, where 32 people died in a September 2022 inferno.
Data corner:
VND47 billion (US$1.8 million) - what Sacombank must pay back to a customer in Cam Ranh who sued the bank after 12 withdrawals and transfers took that amount from her account while she was on vacation.
VND26.6 billion (US$1.04 million) - the amount a woman in Bắc Ninh Province lost from two bank accounts after two people claiming to be police officers contacted her and told her to install a security software program. She sued Techombank and Vietcombank but a court found that the banks had no liability.
961 - the number of suspects accused of “producing, trafficking, storing and using drugs” in a case that began when customs officials found over 11 kilograms of drugs inside 157 toothpaste tubes brought by four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants into Vietnam from France.
Extra Links:
Hun Sen’s Counterproductive Attempt to Tame Vietnamese Online Critics (Fulcrum)
Viet Nam’s highlanders crippled years after floods, landslides (Mekong Eye)
Children of Vietnam war’s rape survivors unjustly bear the burden of others’ crimes (The Guardian)
The age of SASEA (Noahpinion)
From 'Freeze' to 'Avcngcrs': Inside the Wacky World of Vietnam's Bootleg Toys (Saigoneer)
Have a great weekend!
The intention is good, but the implementation was a mess. There are too many cases of financial scams in Vietnam, as you also mentioned under the number section. The account holders are too naive, and the understanding of security measures is not there. Since the users cannot fend for themselves, it’s logical that the government has to step in to help stop the scams from happening. However, they could have done it in a more structured manner, with clear steps and roadmap on how to collect that vital information, and stringent checks on the financial institutions to ensure that critical information is securely collected and properly protected, and the users are sufficiently educated before the restrictions are enabled. That will help smoothen out the implementation a lot more, and will minimize the push back from users.
This reminds me of the roll out of the helmet wearing regulation for bikers so long ago. It was also a mess with tonnes of backlash at first, but over time, people started realizing the benefits of wearing proper helmets when riding, and the practice became part of their daily lives.
I can't help but hearing "Yakety Sax" playing in my head any time there's a rollout of something new.