Cashless payments are becoming a way for people and businesses to access the wider financial system, participants said at a Hanoi seminar on October 6. The event focused on financial inclusion through digital payments.
Nguyen Xuan Hai, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Banking Times, said cashless payments are increasingly used in commerce, services, healthcare, education, public services, and production. He said payment infrastructure and digital methods make transactions more convenient and widen access to formal financial services.
Cashless payments are included as a pillar of Vietnam's National Financial Inclusion Strategy for 2026-2030. Nguyen Thi Thu, Deputy Director of the Payment Department at the State Bank of Vietnam, said digital payments are becoming an entry point to savings, investment, insurance, and other financial services.
In the first eight months of 2026, the number of cashless transactions rose 34.56% year on year and their value increased 13.26%. Online transactions grew 46.57% in number and 21.77% in value. Mobile payments rose 35.33% in number and 23.9% in value, while QR payments at payment-accepting units increased 6.66% in number and 25.85% in value.
By the end of 2025, 88.96% of adults had payment accounts. The total value of cashless payments was about 28 times GDP, close to the 2030 targets of 95% of people aged 15 and above having transaction accounts and cashless payment value reaching 30 times GDP.
Nguyen Thi Thu said the next stage should focus on convenience, transparency, reasonable costs, and regular use rather than account numbers alone. Nguyen Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam, said everyday payments for goods, bills, tuition, medical services, and public services can help people build regular habits of using formal financial services.
Tung said NAPAS connects 70 member institutions and processed about 12 billion transactions in 2025. Its network serves 100 million customers through more than 20,000 ATMs and over 930,000 POS and mPOS terminals.
Sources: VietnamPlus / Vietnam News Agency
