The act of renting, borrowing or buying and selling bank accounts… can be fined up to 200 million VND. This fine is 2-4 times higher than the current fine.

The act of renting, borrowing or buying and selling bank accounts … can be fined up to 200 million VND. This fine is 2-4 times higher than the current fine. This is a proposal of the State Bank.

According to the draft Decree on administrative sanctions for violations in the monetary and banking sector, which is being consulted, buying, selling, renting, leasing, borrowing bank accounts or buying and selling information of 1-10 accounts will be fined from 100-150 million VND. The fine increases to 150-200 million VND for 10 or more bank accounts.

This fine was raised in the context of many services buying and selling bank account information on social networks, aiding fraud rings.

In addition, bank employees who allow customers to use expired or fake identification documents when opening and using payment accounts may also be fined up to 150-200 million VND.

The draft also proposes a fine of VND200 million to VND250 million for opening or maintaining anonymous or impersonated payment accounts; using or exploiting payment accounts for gambling, organizing gambling, fraud, fictitious payment transactions… that are not yet subject to criminal prosecution.

The State Bank has proposed increasing the penalty for buying and selling bank account information in the context of criminals taking advantage of this to defraud and appropriate people’s money through social networks, which is becoming increasingly complicated.

Accordingly, many individuals appear to buy and collect bank accounts and phone SIM cards registered for online banking services and then sell them to fraud rings.

Currently, the country has nearly 183 million bank payment accounts. At the meeting of the Government Steering Committee on Science, Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation on May 17, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested ministries and branches to conduct a comprehensive review of bank accounts and phone SIM cards to prevent online fraud. The goal is to increase state management, prevent and effectively handle this fraud.