Delete 'junk' bank accounts for safe digital transactions

Removing anonymous accounts is a necessary step to protect people and businesses from the risk of fraud in digital transactions.

This is a strong step by the banking industry to clean up data and protect customers.

Clean data to ensure transaction security

The banking industry will implement biometric bank account management from the second half of 2024. In the first phase, banks will encourage individual customers to identify themselves. From January 1, 2025, it will become a mandatory requirement to conduct electronic transactions such as money transfers, online payments, or withdrawals using electronic codes.

For business accounts, July 1, 2025 is the deadline for legal representatives to complete biometric authentication. Accounts that have not been updated will have all electronic transactions suspended. This is an important preparation step for a more drastic “data cleansing” from September 1, 2025, when all unauthenticated or inactive accounts for a long time may be deleted or permanently locked.

According to the State Bank, by early July 2025, the system had compared biometrics for more than 120.9 million individual customer records and more than 1.1 million organizational customer records.

In Hai Phong, a survey of several banks showed that VietinBank Hai Duong has more than 122,000 payment accounts, of which more than 106,000 accounts have been biometric; BIDV Thanh Dong manages 1,700 corporate accounts and 89,100 active personal accounts; Sacombank Hai Duong has 85,000/120,000 biometric personal accounts; the corporate sector has 2,850 accounts, of which 850 accounts have been inactive for more than 6 months.

Nationwide, after screening and biometric comparison, nearly 86 million "junk" accounts, basically "dormant" accounts, not owned by the owner, suspected of fraud, were identified for processing.

After a period of cleaning the customer database and applying biometric information matching solutions, the number of individual customers who were scammed and lost money decreased by 57%; the number of individual accounts receiving scammed money decreased by 47% compared to the same period in 2024. This is convincing evidence that "data cleaning" is an effective solution to ensure transaction safety and transparency of the financial system.

In fact, many “spam” accounts have become tools for cybercriminals to commit fraud, scams or money laundering. Although the rate of fraud via unverified accounts has decreased sharply thanks to biometric authentication, the banking industry will continue to deal with many fraud cases via fake accounts in the first half of 2025.

Not only stopping at biometric authentication, the banking industry also cooperated with the Ministry of Public Security to build a warning database. This system allows immediate warning when customers make transactions with suspicious accounts. Many large banks such as BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank, MB… have applied, helping to prevent hundreds of billions of VND at risk of being misappropriated in just the first few months of this year.

Transaction security - the foundation of transparent digital finance

Deleting “junk” accounts brings double benefits. For banks, a cleaned data system helps reduce tens of millions of inactive accounts, saves management costs, improves transaction monitoring capabilities, and meets international standards on anti-money laundering. When data is accurate, banks can also easily deploy smart digital services, integrating artificial intelligence to serve customers faster and more securely.

For customers, each transaction is “armored” by biometric authentication. Each account is identified and linked to the owner’s identity, minimizing the risk of being exploited by criminals. In addition, customers are also more proactive in managing their accounts, easily closing accounts that are no longer needed or upgrading to a suitable digital service package.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Trang, Deputy Director of Sacombank Hai Duong, commented: “Locking and eliminating anonymous accounts not only helps banks reduce risks, but also directly protects customers. A secure transaction system will be the foundation for developing convenient and modern digital services.”

To protect themselves, people who have not yet authenticated their biometrics should proactively complete the procedure via the banking app or at the transaction counter. This process only takes a few minutes and is completely free, requiring only a chip-embedded ID card or the VNeID app.

In just a few minutes of operation, Vietcombank Hai Duong staff completed biometrics for people.

Along with that, customers need to be more vigilant. Do not share personal information, OTP codes; do not click on strange links and always update the official banking application to avoid the risk of fraud.

“Banks can equip themselves with modern security technology, but customer initiative is an important factor to ensure safe and effective transactions,” said Mr. Nguyen Duy Binh, Deputy Director of BIDV Thanh Dong.

In the first 5 months of 2025 alone, non-cash payment transactions increased sharply, especially transactions via QR codes increased by 78.09% in quantity and 216.24% in value. In the context of the current explosive growth of online transactions, protecting each account is a prerequisite for developing a transparent and sustainable digital financial ecosystem.

The State Bank leader emphasized that biometrics are deployed to clean data and eliminate fake accounts, thereby creating a safe platform for digital transactions; at the same time, the State Bank considers data as the core of digital banking transformation, and is upgrading infrastructure and inter-sectoral connections so that the ecosystem operates transparently and sustainably.

The removal of 86 million accounts without biometric authentication from September 1, 2025 is a commitment to protect customers, strengthen trust and create a solid foundation for transparent and safe digital finance. When banks, people and businesses are proactive, each digital transaction will be truly safe, contributing to promoting the national digital economic goal.

HA KIEN

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/xoa-tai-khoan-ngan-hang-rac-de-an-toan-giao-dich-so-519649.html