See now: What is a payment intermediary service? Regulations, forms of operation, functions of payment intermediary services? What are the benefits of this service? Let’s find out with fdiinvietnam.com in the article below.
What is a payment intermediary service?
Payment intermediary service is understood as the activity of intermediating, transmitting and processing electronic data of payment transactions between payment service users and payment service providers.
Simply put, a payment intermediary is a payment support service that acts as a payment gateway, allowing e-commerce businesses to accept different types of online payments from shoppers.
In essence, a payment intermediary is a third party that sits between the customer and the business transaction to perform the task of processing electronic payment transactions. Some commonly used payment intermediary applications on a daily basis include: VETC, VNPAY, EPAY, MOCA…
Forms of payment intermediary services
Currently, payment intermediary services are divided into the following two groups:
1. Electronic payment infrastructure service group
This group includes:
➧ Financial switching service: This is a service providing technical infrastructure to connect, transmit and process electronic data of domestic payment transactions via POS, Internet, ATM, mobile phone and other electronic transaction channels between payment service providers and/or between payment intermediary service providers.
➧ Electronic clearing service: This is a service providing technical infrastructure for the purpose of receiving payment data, comparing payment data and calculating the results of the amount payable and receivable after clearing between participating members to proceed with settlement for related parties.
➧ Electronic payment gateway service: This is a service that provides technical infrastructure to serve the connection between payment acceptance units and the bank, to support customers in making electronic bill payments, payments in e-commerce transactions and other electronic payment services.
2. Payment service support service group
This group includes:
➧ E-wallet service: This is a service operated by organizations providing intermediary payment services. Through this service, customers will be given an electronic identification account created on an electronic chip, phone SIM or computer… to deposit money, withdraw money from the e-wallet and make payment transactions.
➧ Collection and payment support service: This is a service that supports banks in performing payment and collection services for customers with bank cards and payment accounts at the bank through receiving, processing, sending electronic data messages and calculating the results of payment and collection, canceling payment and collection to settle payments to related parties.
➧ Electronic money transfer support service: This is a service that supports the reception, transmission and processing of data in electronic money transfer transactions of banks or authorized by banks.
Organizations providing intermediary payment services in Vietnam
According to Article 3 of Decree 52/2024/ND-CP, an organization providing intermediary payment services includes an organization that is not a bank or a branch of a foreign bank licensed to provide intermediary payment services.
As of March 29, 2024, Vietnam has 51 non-bank organizations and enterprises licensed by the State Bank to provide payment intermediary services. Some payment intermediary companies include:
- Moca Technology and Service Joint Stock Company;
- Vietnam Australia Online Services Joint Stock Company (VUIPAY);
- Vietnam Online Trading Services Joint Stock Company (Vietnam Online);
- Vietnam Community Online Service Joint Stock Company (VIET UNION);
- ShopeePay Joint Stock Company (ShopeePay);
- Electricity and Telecommunications Payment Solutions Joint Stock Company (ECPay)…
>> FREE DOWNLOAD: List of payment intermediary companies.
Regulations on the provision of payment intermediary services
According to the regulations of the State Bank, organizations providing intermediary payment services must comply with the following requirements:
1. About risk management, safety and security
- Must develop and implement internal regulations, comply with the State Bank’s regulations on risk management principles in e-banking activities, comply with legal regulations on anti-money laundering and other relevant provisions of Vietnamese law;
- Implement requirements to ensure safety and security of information technology systems in banking operations; safety and security in providing electronic banking services;
- Comply with regulations on the establishment, use, preservation and storage of electronic documents according to legal regulations on electronic transactions in banking activities.
2. Regarding ensuring payment capacity
➧ For organizations providing collection and payment support services:
Must agree with the cooperating bank on measures to ensure payment capacity when providing this service, including opening a payment guarantee account or maintaining a deposit or other security measures for collection and payment support services.
➧ For organizations providing e-wallet services:
- A payment guarantee account must be opened to ensure the provision of e-wallet services and this account must not be shared with the payment guarantee account of the collection and payment support service (if any) and must be completely separate from other payment accounts opened at the cooperative bank;
- Maintain the total balance of all payment guarantee accounts opened at cooperating banks equal to or higher than the total balance of all customer e-wallets at the same time.
Note:
The payment guarantee account for e-wallet service can only be used for the following purposes:
- Payment to the payment account/debit card of the payment acceptance unit at the bank;
- Refund money to the customer’s payment account/debit card in the following cases: The customer withdraws money from the e-wallet, no longer needs to use the e-wallet, the e-wallet service provider terminates the provision of e-wallet services to the customer, the e-wallet service provider dissolves or goes bankrupt;
- Payment into the payment account of the public service provider (in case the customer uses an e-wallet to pay, pay fees and charges for public services according to the provisions of law);
- Transfer to payment guarantee accounts of other e-wallet services of the same open e-wallet service provider.
Functions and roles of payment intermediary services
Payment intermediary service is like a payment gateway that performs the function of connecting, transmitting and processing payment data from the business platform to the bank, helping customers to easily pay online at the time of purchasing goods and services.
For the economy, payment intermediary services play a huge role in helping non-cash payment methods become increasingly popular and preferred, promoting business transactions to take place quickly, increasing the speed of capital circulation for individuals and businesses.
On the other hand, payment intermediary services also allow banks to gather idle money in the economy as short-term credit and reduce costs of circulation, printing, and cash storage.
Benefits of payment intermediary services
In fact, using payment intermediary services brings many benefits to customers and businesses, specifically:
➧ For customers:
- Save time shopping with online payment;
- Easily choose the most beneficial intermediary payment account;
- Pay service bills conveniently, anytime, anywhere;
- No need to worry about personal information and transaction information leakage.
➧ For businesses:
- Receive information about payment transactions at any time of the day;
- Increase the number of successful payment transactions right on the website because customers can easily make online payments;
- Control revenue from online purchases easily;
- Save costs and manpower in processing online payment transactions through the application of payment intermediary solutions.
Some frequently asked questions about payment intermediary services
1. What is a payment intermediary?
Payment intermediary is understood as a third party, acting as an intermediary connecting, transmitting and processing electronic data of payment transactions between payment service users and payment service providers.
2. How many forms of payment intermediary services are there?
Currently, payment intermediary services include the following two groups of services:
- Group of electronic payment infrastructure services, including: Financial switching services, electronic clearing services, electronic payment gateway services;
- Payment service support group, including: Electronic money transfer service, e-wallet service, collection and payment support service.
3. Which organizations are allowed to provide payment intermediary services?
Current payment intermediary service providers include organizations that are not banks or foreign bank branches licensed by the State Bank to provide payment intermediary services.
4. How many organizations provide payment intermediary services?
Currently, Vietnam has 51 non-bank organizations licensed to provide payment intermediary services.
>> See more: List of payment intermediary companies.
5. Is an e-wallet an intermediary payment service?
Yes. E-wallet service is one of the services provided by payment intermediary service providers. With this e-wallet, customers can deposit money, withdraw money from e-wallet and make payment transactions quickly and safely.
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