Nghiem Thanh Son, deputy head of the Payment Department at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), told a press conference on April 1 that rumors of the licensing of virtual currency exchanges were unfounded, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.

A Bitcoin coin, a kind of cryptocurrencies, is seen in an illustration picture taken on June 23, 2017. The State Bank of Vietnam has never licensed virtual money or any cryptocurrency exchanges

Speaking at the press conference on monetary policy and banking sector performance, Son stressed that the central bank has never licensed virtual money or cryptocurrency exchanges.

As regulated, licensing is beyond the central bank’s authority. In 2017, the prime minister issued a decision calling on the State Bank of Vietnam to research and propose regulations on digital currencies, while the Ministry of Justice was chosen to manage the operation of crytocurrencies, build a related project and produce a legal framework for virtual currencies.

After the Ministry of Justice had completed the project and submitted it to the Government, the Government assigned the relevant ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and the SBV, to continue their research on virtual currencies to publicize an official legal framework for the operation of cryptocurrency exchange floors.

As such, rumors of licensed cryptocurrency exchange floors being in operation are not true.

Besides this, Son said that the central bank has licensed 29 units to provide intermediary payment services, with 26 entities supplying e-wallets.

As the statistics of the first quarter are updated until mid-April, Son only provided last year’s statistics.

As of December 31, 2018, the e-wallet service providers supplied 4.24 million e-wallets out of the nine million registered.

In 2018, 214 million transactions were settled through intermediary payment methods, up 14.7% against last year.

In addition, e-payments are on the rise, with VND73 quadrillion being settled by the banking system in 2018, a 25% increase over last year.

Regarding the switch to the use of chip cards from magnetic ones, Son said that the SBV had produced a detailed roadmap for 2019-2021.

In particular, at least 30% of the total domestic cards will be converted to chip cards by December 31. Meanwhile, until December 31, 2020, all ATMs and kiosks will be replaced to serve chip cards, and 60% of the total cards are expected to be replaced with chip cards. By the final period at the end of 2021, only chip cards will be in use in the country.

SGT