HANOI - Agreement Signing Ceremony for ATM Cross Border Service between Vietnam National Financial Switching Joint stock Company (Banknetvn) and Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearing Institutes (KFTC) was hold on 9 March 2011 in Hanoi.

The Agreement was signed by Mr. Ngo Ngoc Dong – Banknetvn’s General Director and Mr. Chang Hun Song – KFTC’s President and Chairman, in the witness of Mr. Bui Quang Tien – Director of Payment Department of State Bank of Vietnam together with other senior representatives come from Banknetvn strategic member banks’ Card Centers such as Agribank, BIDV and Vietinbank, etc.

Established in 1986, KFTC is a premier finance and payment processing, clearing and settlement institution in Korea. There are several interbank payment systems are built, managed and operated by KFTC such as Check clearing, Giro and Inter-bank ATM/POS network. In terms of ATM/POS transaction switching, KFTC is the national Switch of Korea and the only one Switch of Korea in the Asian Payment Network Forum .

In accordance with the signed Agreement, after the interconnection between Banknetvn and KFTC completed, card holders are Vietnamese customers possessing ATM cards issued by any participating member banks of Banknetvn can initiate Cash Withdrawal and Balance inquiry transactions in any ATMs owned by a participating member banks of KFTC in Korea and vice versa. These ATM Cross Border Services are anticipated to come onto the market by July 2011.

Aside from Cash Withdrawal and Balance Inquiry ( target to Cardholders who are travelers and businessmen), Banknetvn and KFTC  plan to cooperate in providing customers who are Vietnamese Overseas workers based in Korea and Korea businessmen and companies based in Vietnam with other services like remittance (inter-nation funds transfer) and purchase on POS.

“The State Bank of Vietnam has been unanimous to appoint Banknetvn to be the single representative of Vietnam Switch in the Asian Payment Network (APN) to interconnect with Switches in the region in order to follow the guideline and mandate of Vietnam Government and State Bank of Vietnam in choosing Banknetvn as the core in consolidating and building the National Switch in Vietnam. The Agreement between Banknetvn and KFTC has paved the way for multiple connections of Banknetvn to regional switches” said Mr. Bui Quang Tien – Director of Payment Department of SBV. Mr. Bui Quang Tien  also expressed his confidence in a further tighten cooperation between the two companies in specific and the two nations in general in the field of financial switching in the time to come.

“Banknetvn is now in talks to partner with other APN members, especially we are in the way to negotiate Agreements with MEPS of Malaysia and National ITMX of Thailand” happily said Mr. Ngo Ngoc Dong – Banknetvn General Director – at the ceremony.