Shinhan Bank, BC Card partner to upgrade Vietnam's card payment system

Shinhan Bank Vietnam General Director Kang Gew-won, second from left, poses with BC Card Korea CEO Choi Won-seok, third from left, during an MOU signing ceremony at the headquarters of Shinhan Bank Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, Thursday. Courtesy of Shinhan Bank Vietnam

By Lee Yeon-woo

Shinhan Bank announced on Friday that its subsidiary in Vietnam has signed a memorandum of understanding with BC Card to enhance the credit card payment system in Vietnam.

The bank expects that such efforts could stimulate the Vietnamese credit card payment market, thus supporting the Vietnam government's goal of creating a cashless society by 2025.

Based on this agreement, BC Card's subsidiaries in Vietnam and Indonesia, along with Shinhan Bank Vietnam, will collaborate to establish a card-acquiring system in Vietnam. They will also work together to expand networks between card affiliates and develop card devices and card payment terminals (POS) in Vietnam.

The agreement is the first collaboration between Shinhan Bank and KT since the telecom service provider acquired a 2.1 percent stake in the bank in 2022. BC Card is a subsidiary of KT.

Both firms hope to create win-win synergies domestically and internationally in the future.

“Vietnam is the country with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in Asia. It also has a rapidly growing credit card payment market. We expect that this agreement will contribute to the expansion of the credit card payment market in Vietnam,” said an official from BC Card.

“Through this business agreement, we have laid the groundwork to grow into a leading bank in the credit card payment market in Vietnam,” said an official from Shinhan Bank. “In the future, we will provide more convenient and safe financial services to Vietnamese customers through collaboration with various financial companies.”

As of May, Shinhan Bank Vietnam's card business has seen its annual credit card usage amount increase by 28 percent year-on-year to reach $585 million, with a membership of 290,000 people. It also has launched a variety of services this year, including a new partnership card with Vietnamese online shopping mall Tiki, and a corporate card in collaboration with Bizzi, an invoice solution company.