Workshop on Draft Law on Electronic Transactions (Amended) – co-organized by BWG & VNBA

    On the morning of July 27, 2022, at the Headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam, the Banking Working Group (BWG) in collaboration with the Banking Association (VNBA) held a workshop to discuss the Draft Law on Electronic Transactions (Amended).

    The workshop was attended by Ms. Pham Thuy Hanh, Deputy Director of Legal Department – Government Office; Ms. Nguyen Minh Hang – Deputy Director of Legal Department – Ministry of Information & Communications, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung – General Secretary of VNBA, Ms. Michele Wee – Chairperson of Banking Working Group & other representatives from the SBV, Legal club, Fintech club, domestic banks and branches of foreign banks operating in Vietnam.

    At the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung – General Secretary of VNBA said that this is an important law, providing legal frameworks in the digital environment, set forth urgent requirements to create a more solid transaction basis, more convenient and safe with low cost, creating more stability and reliability environment for market development.

    Mr. Nguyen Vu Hung – Member of the Law Drafting Committee updated that currently the Draft Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) has 8 chapters and 60 articles. The main policies of the draft, after receiving comments, focus on (i) Continue to withdraw content about the service of creating and verifying trading accounts and service providers; (ii) Continue to withdraw the entire content of the policy.

    At the workshop, the majority of opinions expressed the need to amend the Law on Electronic Transactions 2005 to suit the new context conditions and the strong development of electronic transactions carried out on the Internet. network environment. However, the delegates also hoped that the revised law would further facilitate businesses and people when transacting in the electronic environment. In addition, representatives of many businesses also suggested that the Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) should be clearer in some regulations & unified basic definitions.

    The BWG representative shared about international practices on electronic data messages and electronic signatures and proposed the MIC to consider: (i) promulgating the regulations in line with international regulations and (ii) retaining regulations on electronic signatures like the current law, supplementing regulations on the level of security of electronic signatures on the basis of recognizing the legal value of an electronic signature regardless of the type of signature and the principle that the participating parties reserve the right to decide the electronic signature types according to the actual needs of these parties.

    SBV representatives reaffirmed the urgency and importance of amending the Law on Electronic Transactions to meet the development needs of the market and for the promulgation of relevant laws, such as amending the SBV’s relevant regulations – e.g. articles on electronic guarantee activities in Circular 07/2015/TT-NHNN on bank guarantees.

    Representative of the Government Office, Ms. Pham Thuy Hanh expressed her appreciation and attitude towards the suggestions at the workshop. Thereby, setting a task for the Ministry of Information and Communications to consider effectively, unify the basic contents, build a common understanding and commit to screening & issuing a more complete draft to minimize problems. It is expected that the Government Office and the MIC will coordinate to bring up the issue for review and discussion in the next week’s seminar with the participation of SBV, BWG, VNBA in order to hastily complete it within the deadline set by the National Assembly.

    Speaking at the workshop, Ms. Michele Wee – Chairperson of BWG committed to continuing to support, cooperate and share experience, lessons learned, and contribute to the process of building and developing the legal framework in Vietnam.

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