The Ministry of Information and Communications reported that the number of Mobile Money subscribers has quadrupled since the service was launched in January this year, 67% of whom were from rural, mountainous, border, island and remote areas.

As many as 1.1 million people have so far used Mobile Money service, including nearly 660,000 in rural, mountainous, remote, border and island areas.

More than 463,000 people have used Mobile Money as of February 11, over one month after the Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel) and the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) launched the cashless payment service.

The Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has become a Mobile Money service provider after its official launch of the service on November 25.

MobiFone has become the first telecoms company to provide Mobile Money services in Vietnam after receiving permission from the State Bank of Vietnam on November 18.

Vietnam will pilot Mobile Money service across the country for two years before officially launching it, according to Deputy Governor of the State Bank Dao Minh Tu.

The Government has issued a resolution to create a sandbox for financial technology (fintech) in the country’s banking sector.

Three mobile network operators - Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone - have applied for the implementation of their own Mobile Money pilot projects.

Local telecommunications network providers have been approved to pilot several Mobile Money services next month after more than two years of waiting.

Vietnam is marching towards becoming a cashless society with new methods of electronic payments being deployed widely, but security risks come hand in hand with new technologies and applications.