Conditions, documents, procedures for granting payment intermediary license

What is a payment intermediary license? What are the conditions and procedures for applying for a payment intermediary license for e-wallet services, e-payment gateways, etc.? What procedures need to be done after obtaining the license? Let’s find out the details with Online Accounting in the article below.

What is a payment intermediary license?

Payment intermediary license (full name is payment intermediary service provision license) is a license issued by the State Bank to an organization that is not a bank or bank branch.

Through this license, organizations can provide one or several payment intermediary services including: financial switching, international financial switching, electronic clearing, electronic wallet, collection and payment support, electronic payment gateway.

>> See details: What is payment intermediary service?

Conditions for granting a license to operate as a payment intermediary service provider

An organization is granted a payment intermediary license when it fully meets and ensures the maintenance of the following conditions throughout the process of providing payment intermediary services.

1. General conditions

➧ Legal conditions

Payment intermediary service providers (hereinafter referred to as payment intermediary organizations) must meet the following legal conditions:

• Have a business establishment license/registration license, are operating normally, and are not in the process of merger, dissolution, separation, consolidation, conversion or bankruptcy during the time of applying for a payment intermediary license;
• In case an organization provides financial switching and electronic clearing services, it must ensure that it does not engage in any business other than providing payment intermediary services.

➧ Capital conditions

The organization shall be fully responsible for the legality of the contributed charter capital or the granted capital. The actual contributed charter capital or granted capital of the organization must be at least from:

• 50 billion VND in case of providing collection and payment support services, e-wallet, e-payment gateway;
• 300 billion VND in case of providing financial switching services, international financial switching, electronic clearing.

➧ Conditions for legal representatives, directors, general directors 

The legal representative, general director, and director of the organization must meet the following conditions:

• Have a university degree or higher in economics, law, business administration, information technology;
• Have at least 5 years of experience in management and operation at an organization operating in the financial and banking sector;
• Not subject to prohibition from managing or establishing enterprises according to regulations;
• There must always be at least one legal representative in Vietnam. In case the sole legal representative goes abroad, he/she must authorize in writing another person residing in Vietnam to exercise specific rights and obligations on behalf of the legal representative.

➧ Conditions for deputy directors, deputy general directors and key personnel

• Deputy General Directors, Deputy Directors and key personnel (such as department heads, division heads, technical staff, etc.) participating in the implementation of the payment intermediary service provision project must have a college degree or higher in economics, law, business administration, information technology or their specialized field.

➧ Conditions for project activities

The organization’s payment intermediary service provision project is approved by a competent authority (according to the regulations stated in the organization’s charter).

➧ Conditions for technical solution explanation

The technical solution explanation of the organization used to provide payment intermediary services must meet the requirements for ensuring information system security at level 3 as prescribed by law.

2. Special conditions

➧ For e-wallet services, collection and payment support services

In case an organization or payment intermediary company provides e-wallet services and collection and payment support services for customers with payment accounts at many banks or foreign bank branches, it must cooperate with an organization providing financial switching services and electronic clearing services (licensed by the State Bank) to:

• Perform financial transaction switching activities;
• Perform clearing and settlement for obligations arising in the process of providing payment intermediary services.

➧ For financial switching services, electronic clearing services

• Must cooperate with an organization to carry out the settlement of the clearing results between the parties involved; 
• Cooperate with at least:
  • 50 banks or foreign bank branches with total charter capital in the year immediately preceding the year of application for payment intermediary license accounting for over 65% of total charter capital of banks or foreign bank branches in the system of credit institutions;
  • 20 organizations providing payment intermediary services.
• The information infrastructure of the payment intermediary organization must:
  • Meet the minimum requirements for ensuring information system security at level 4;
  • Ensure integration and connectivity with the technical systems of participating organizations with interconnection agreements.
• Must have a server system in accordance with legal regulations and be capable of processing at least 10 million payment transactions per day;
• No more than two organizations providing financial switching services and electronic clearing services may be connected.

➧ For international financial switching services

• Have a valid financial switching payment intermediary license;
• Cooperate with an organization to carry out the settlement of clearing results between related parties; 
• There must be internal regulations on standards for selecting connections between international payment systems to perform financial switching activities for international payment transactions; 
• There must be internal regulations on technical business procedures for international financial switching services applying for licensing;
• Organizations operating international payment systems in cooperation with payment intermediary organizations must be established and legally operate abroad.

Procedures for granting payment intermediary license

1. Application for payment intermediary license

According to the provisions of Article 24 of Decree 52/2024/ND-CP, payment intermediary organizations prepare documents to apply for a license to provide payment intermediary services with the following documents:

Note:

➧ For financial switching services, electronic clearing services need to add:

• The plan (according to form 08) is organized to settle the results of compensation between related parties;
• Cooperation agreement documents with participating organizations, the commitment content must clearly state that cooperation with more than 2 organizations providing financial switching services and electronic clearing services is not allowed; 
• Documents proving that the information infrastructure and server system of the payment intermediary organization meet the prescribed conditions.

➧ For international financial switching services, additional information is required:

• Internal regulations on standards for selecting connections to international payment systems;
• Internal regulations on technical and professional procedures with risk management measures;
• Valid copies of documents proving that the organization operating the international payment system is licensed to establish and operate legally abroad (for example: establishment license/business registration license, other documents of equivalent value);
• The plan (according to form 08) is organized to settle the results of compensation between the relevant parties.

➧ Personnel records must include:

• Resume (form 09);
• Copy of university degree of legal representative, general director, director;
• Copies of college degrees of the deputy general director, deputy director and key personnel (such as department heads, division heads, technical staff, etc.) participating in project implementation;
• Criminal record of the legal representative, general director, director (issued no more than 6 months ago); 
• Document confirming that the legal representative, director, and general director have at least 5 years of experience in management and operation at an organization operating in the financial and banking sector.

2. Payment intermediary licensing process

The procedure for applying for a payment intermediary license is carried out in the following steps:

➧ Step 1: Prepare documents

The number of documents required to apply for a payment intermediary license that organizations and businesses need to prepare includes:

• 2 sets of documents (full documents as fdiinvietnam.com instructed above);
• 6 CDs or 6 USBs storing soft copies of the file.

➧ Step 2: Submit application

• Organizations and enterprises submit applications for payment intermediary licenses via post (postal service) or directly to the One-Stop Department of the State Bank;
• Within 5 working days from the date of receiving the application, the State Bank will send a written notice to the organization or enterprise confirming that the application is complete and valid;
• In case the dossier is incomplete and invalid, the State Bank shall send a written notice requesting the organization or enterprise to supplement and complete the dossier within 60 days.

Note:

• Within 60 days from the date the State Bank sends a notice to the organization, confirming receipt of a complete and valid dossier, the payment intermediary organization may send additional and complete documents;
• Organizations are allowed to submit additional documents and complete the application up to 2 times.

➧ Step 3: Document assessment

• Within 90 working days from the date of receipt of complete and valid documents, the State Bank shall conduct appraisal of the documents;
• During the appraisal process, if the dossier needs additional documents to complete or there is content that needs to be explained, the State Bank will send a written notice, requesting the payment intermediary organization to explain and complete the dossier within 60 days. After this period, the State Bank will return the dossier;
• Within 90 working days from the date of receipt of additional and completed documents from the payment intermediary organization, the State Bank shall continue to assess and grant a payment intermediary license according to regulations. In case of refusal to grant a license, the State Bank shall send a written notice to the organization stating the reasons.

Note:

1) The initial fee for issuing an intermediary license is 10,000,000 VND/license, and the re-issuance fee is 5,000,000 VND/license (as stipulated in Circular 150/2016/TT-BTC).

2) The payment intermediary license is valid for 10 years from the date the organization is granted the license by the State Bank. For organizations providing international financial switching services, the term of operation must not exceed the term of operation stated on the financial switching service provision license.

Procedures to be followed after obtaining a payment intermediary license

➧ Within a maximum of 6 months from the date of being granted a payment intermediary license, the organization must provide the registered payment intermediary service to the market and may only provide the service after deploying a technical system that meets all the requirements prescribed for financial switching services, international financial switching services and electronic clearing services.

➧ Within a maximum of 6 months from the date of being granted a payment intermediary license and at least 30 days before the expected date of providing payment intermediary services to the market, the organization must notify and provide the State Bank with documents proving:

• Technical systems meet the prescribed conditions;
• A valid copy of the technical acceptance report of licensed payment intermediary services with a cooperating bank (according to form No. 10) for e-wallet services, collection and payment support services, and electronic payment gateway services;
• Documents and papers proving that an organization performs the settlement of clearing results between related parties for the services: financial switching, international financial switching, electronic clearing.

Within 15 working days from the date of receipt of all the above documents and supporting records, the State Bank shall conduct an on-site inspection at the payment intermediary organization and send a written notice to the organization whether or not it meets the prescribed conditions.

In case of non-compliance, the State Bank shall consider revoking the organization’s payment intermediary license.

>> FREE DOWNLOAD: Form No. 10 – Technical acceptance report.

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