What Vietnamese law requires digital ID for bank accounts and when did it take effect?
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Executive summary
Vietnam has moved to require digital identity (e‑ID / digital ID) for a range of government and banking interactions: companies must use corporate e‑ID accounts on the VNeID platform from July 1, 2025 (existing portal accounts became invalid after June 30, 2025) [1] [2] [3]. Banking rules and central‑bank circulars also require biometric/digital verification for customers and corporate legal representatives with key deadlines in 2025 (individual biometric registration by Jan 1, 2025; corporate legal representatives by July 1, 2025) as set out in Circulars 17/2024 and 18/2024 referenced in reporting [4] [5].
1. What law or rules require digital ID for bank accounts — the legal mosaic
Vietnam’s push toward mandatory digital identity for public services and financial authentication is not a single statute but a set of laws, decrees and regulator circulars. The National Population Data Center’s VNeID system has been designated as the central e‑ID hub for administrative procedures under decrees and implementing rules that took effect for companies on July 1, 2025 (Decree/implementing regulations from 2024), meaning corporate accounts on older portals were no longer valid after June 30, 2025 [1] [2] [3]. Separately, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Circulars 17/2024/TT‑NHNN and 18/2024/TT‑NHNN which require biometric/digital authentication for banking transactions and set deadlines for biometric registration tied to 2025 [4] [5].
2. Key effective dates you must know
The dominant effective dates in reporting are: the Decree and related rules that centralized e‑ID on VNeID took effect so that from July 1, 2025 companies must use e‑ID accounts for administrative procedures and older portal accounts were invalid from June 30, 2025 [1] [2] [3]. For banking, sources cite that individuals had a biometric registration deadline of January 1, 2025 and legal representatives of corporate accounts were required to register biometric data by July 1, 2025 to keep digital banking access [4] [5].
3. Which legal instruments are cited by reporters and lawyers
Commercial legal commentary and news pieces list a constellation of instruments: Decree 59/2022/ND‑CP and subordinate regulations on e‑ID implementation, the Digital Data Law 60/2024/QH15 (noted as effective July 1, 2025) addressing data use and protection, and banking circulars (Circulars 17/2024, 18/2024) implementing biometric requirements — all of which together create the practical obligation to link e‑ID to services and bank accounts [6] [1] [4] [2].
4. How banks are implementing identity checks in practice
Banking authorities moved to standardize customer identity by requiring biometric authentication tied to chip‑based ID cards and the national e‑ID ecosystem. Reports say the State Bank of Vietnam completed biometric validation of over 120 million individual accounts and began requiring personal information plus biometric authentication for banking transactions from 2026 onward, with regulators urging citizens to update records early to avoid service disruptions [5] [4]. Corporate account access depends on legal representatives registering biometrics and e‑ID credentials by July 1, 2025 [4].
5. Policy goals and stated rationale from authorities
Officials frame the shift as part of a national digital transformation to put all citizens and businesses onto digital ID and public service platforms by 2026, to reduce fraud, speed administrative processes and improve service delivery [7] [8]. The Digital Data Law is reported to clarify personal data rules for these efforts and came into effect July 1, 2025 in summaries [6].
6. Tensions, implementation gaps and unanswered questions
Reporting and legal alerts warn of unresolved implementation issues: companies with foreign legal representatives face practical hurdles because Level‑2 e‑ID rules for foreigners only took effect from July 1, 2025 and require residence cards; guidance on multiple representatives, paper alternatives, and technical interoperability remain unclear in available reporting [9] [10] [3]. Sources also note technical hurdles such as poor NFC read rates of chip IDs, which banks flagged as operational challenges [4].
7. Alternative perspectives and risks flagged by observers
Proponents argue comprehensive e‑ID and biometric checks reduce fraud and streamline services; critics and observers warn of privacy, data‑security and access risks as identity and biometric data centralize under government platforms, and stress that practical rollout, legal clarity and safeguards will determine whether benefits materialize or create exclusion (reports cite national objectives and expansion of government control in cybersecurity law debates) [8] [7] [6].
Limitations: available sources do not mention a single named “bank‑account digital ID law” by title that alone creates the requirement; instead, the requirement emerges from combined decrees, the Digital Data Law and central bank circulars and implementation via the VNeID platform [1] [4] [6]. All factual assertions above are drawn from the cited reporting [1] [4] [2] [3] [5] [6] [9] [8] [7].