Unverified bank accounts will be removed from September 1st

Nearly 80 million unverified bank accounts

According to data from the State Bank, by the end of June 2025, the banking industry had 119 million individual customer records (CIFs) biometrically verified via chip-embedded CCCDs or VneIDs (reaching nearly 100% of the total number of individual payment accounts generating transactions on digital channels).

More than 1.1 billion institutional customer profiles have been biometrically verified (reaching more than 70% of the total number of institutional payment accounts generating transactions on digital channels).

The National Credit Information Center (CIC) has coordinated with C06, Ministry of Public Security to complete 6 rounds of checking and cleaning customer data with about 57 million customer records offline...

According to data provided by the State Bank, by the end of 2024, the country will have about 200 million bank accounts. Thus, to date, there are still about 80 million bank accounts that have not been authenticated and biometrically verified according to regulations.

Tài khoản ngân hàng không sử dụng sẽ bị — The banking industry has had more than 119 million customer records biometrically verified via chip-embedded CCCD or VneID.

The State Bank will issue regulations to delete unverified accounts from September 1. In a recent statement, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department, State Bank, said that accounts that do not have biometric information verified may be "junk", "dormant" or fraudulent accounts and therefore cannot be legalized.

"The banking industry will make a revolution to eliminate fraudulent accounts and it is expected that by September, banks will close all accounts that have not been biometrically authenticated to prevent criminals from taking advantage of them for fraud," said Mr. Tuan.

Regarding the above information, many people wonder if commercial banks can delete unverified accounts that still have money in the account or belong to customers?

Deleting unverified bank accounts, how does it affect users?

Speaking to reporters from the Lao Dong Newspaper on the morning of July 16, leaders of several banks said they had to wait for specific instructions from the State Bank, and that it was not true that unverified customer accounts would be deleted after September 1.

The deputy general director in charge of technology at a commercial bank said that up to now, the bank has not received any instructions from the management agency on deleting unverified accounts.

"Deletion can be understood as not allowing the transaction to continue and the customer who wants to continue using it must go to the bank counter to re-identify and re-authenticate. The commercial bank itself cannot unilaterally delete the customer's account" - said the leader of this bank.

The deputy general director of another joint stock commercial bank also expressed his opinion that "deleting" an unverified account can be understood as "freezing the account, not allowing it to operate". The account owner has until September 1 to authenticate biometrics. In principle, the customer's account can only be deleted when the balance is zero or must go through legal procedures according to regulations to be deleted and the customer's remaining money in the account must also be suspended.

"Deleting an account here can be understood as "freezing" or "hibernating" junk accounts, accounts that have not been used for a long time or have not been biometrically authenticated, and are not included in statistics" - said the deputy general director of this joint stock bank.

In fact, according to the reporter, many people have 3-4 payment accounts opened at different banks and have not used them for a long time. Therefore, when the banking industry requires biometrics for new accounts, millions of junk accounts and unused accounts, including accounts opened for fraudulent purposes, are created.

Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper is contacting the State Bank for clarification and will continue to inform readers...

Fraud, scams drop sharply after biometric authentication

At a press conference to announce the banking performance in the first 6 months of 2025, the leader of the Information Technology Department of the State Bank said that compared to the same period last year, the number of individual customers who were scammed and lost money decreased by 10% and the value of money of individual customers who were scammed decreased by 47% after applying biometrics.

Recently, some criminals have moved to corporate customers' accounts to commit fraud, so the State Bank is continuing to review and find solutions to prevent and handle violations.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/tai-khoan-ngan-hang-khong-su-dung-se-bi-loai-bo-tu-1-9-196250716105451652.htm