The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has just issued Document No. 4932 dated June 13, 2024 to the People's Committees of provinces and cities to coordinate in preventing the buying and selling of payment accounts of students.

Accordingly, through monitoring and grasping the actual situation along with feedback from the Ministry of Public Security, it can be seen that recently in some provinces and cities, there have been cases of criminals enticing students to open payment accounts, then transferring them to these subjects for use.

Criminals lure and entice students who have been granted Citizen Identification Cards to open payment accounts and pay them to open them. The subjects provide students with phones with pre-installed SIM cards to register to open payment accounts and Internet Banking and SMS Banking services.

Then, the subjects asked the students to return the phones, provide the above information, login password, authentication password (OTP)... These subjects also collected biometric data (face) of the students (Face ID) to serve the customer's identity verification when requested.

These accounts are then often used for illegal purposes such as money laundering, tax evasion, property fraud, terrorist financing, etc.

The document clearly states that prohibited acts are specifically stipulated in Article 6 of Decree 101 dated November 22, 2012 of the Government: Providing dishonest information in the process of providing and using payment services and payment intermediary services; Opening or maintaining anonymous or impersonated payment accounts);

Decree No. 52 dated May 15, 2024, effective from July 1, 2024, replaces Decree 101/2012/ND-CP, which adds provisions on prohibited acts in Clause 3.5, Article 8, including: Providing dishonest information related to the provision or use of payment services, payment intermediary services, etc.;

Opening or maintaining anonymous or impersonated payment accounts or e-wallets; buying, selling, renting, leasing, borrowing, lending payment accounts or e-wallets; renting, leasing, buying, selling, opening bank cards (except for anonymous prepaid cards); stealing, colluding to steal, buying, selling payment account information, bank card information, e-wallet information; Point h, Clause 2, Article 5 of Circular 23/2014/TT-NHNN (amended and supplemented) stipulates that payment account holders are not allowed to rent or lend their payment accounts.

The above violations will be subject to administrative sanctions according to the provisions of Clauses 5 and 6, Article 26 of Decree 88/ND-CP dated November 14, 2019 (amended and supplemented). Specifically, a fine of VND 40 million to VND 50 million will be imposed for the following acts: Renting, leasing, borrowing, lending payment accounts, buying and selling payment account information with a quantity of from 1 payment account to less than 10 payment accounts that is not yet serious enough to warrant criminal prosecution;

Fines from 50 million VND to 100 million VND for the following acts: Renting, leasing, borrowing, lending payment accounts, buying and selling payment account information with a quantity of 10 or more payment accounts that is not yet serious enough to warrant criminal prosecution.

To contribute to solving the above problem, ensuring the opening and use of payment accounts in accordance with the law, the State Bank recommends that the People's Committees of provinces and cities coordinate to direct the Department of Information and Communications, media agencies and press in the area to strengthen propaganda and warning work to people and organizations and individuals in the area;

Especially students, university students, and minors about the methods and tricks of criminals, related legal regulations, raising awareness of law compliance and having effective prevention and control measures, not allowing them to be exploited for illegal purposes;

Direct schools and educational institutions in the area to thoroughly disseminate and promptly inform all students and parents about the methods and tricks of criminals, prohibited acts in opening and using payment accounts and regulations on administrative sanctions to raise awareness of law compliance and prevent them from being exploited for illegal purposes .