Vietnam Fintech Sandbox 2025: A Roadmap to Scale Inbound Payments

The confluence of strong economic growth and rapid digitalization is creating a "perfect storm" for innovation in Vietnam's financial technology sector, particularly in the domain of cross-border payments. Driven by a strategic vision for a cashless economy, the government has officially issued Decree 94/2025/ND-CP, establishing the long-awaited Vietnam Fintech Regulatory Sandbox. This controlled testing mechanism, while domestically focused, is the most powerful tool available to resolve crucial "last-mile" delivery barriers and unlock the immense scale of cross-border payment inflows.

The Golden Opportunity: Vietnam's Booming Cross-Border Payment Corridors

With over 100.3 million people and 87% of adults holding bank accounts, Vietnam has become a fertile ground for digital financial services. The overall payment market is valued at $21.9 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $42.8 billion by 2032, driven by three key pillars:

• Personal Remittances and Payouts: This cash flow is estimated to range from $16 billion to $19 billion annually, with major corridors from the US, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. This drives an urgent need for fast and efficient remittance payout solutions.
• B2B Trade and E-commerce: This is the largest and fastest-growing segment, projected to hit $10.5 billion by 2033. The $371.3 billion export turnover is a primary driver, consequently creating massive demand for effective and transparent international payment infrastructure.
• Tourism and the Gig Economy: The return of 12.6 million international tourists and the rise of the gig economy fuel demand for multi-currency solutions and efficient mass payout capabilities.

This market diversity underscores that Vietnam's inbound cross-border payment market is not monolithic, thus requiring a platform-based approach capable of supporting both X2C and X2B use cases.

The Last-Mile Challenge: Barriers to Inbound Payment Flows

Despite Vietnam's high digital adoption rates, the underlying infrastructure for receiving funds from abroad remains fragmented. The process of "last-mile delivery", getting the money into the recipient's hands—is the biggest bottleneck.

Complex Beneficiary Identification (KYC/AML) and Fragmented Payout Networks

The core barriers include:

• Complex Beneficiary Identification (KYC/AML): Traditional KYC/AML processes are often manual and time-consuming, which is the primary cause of high transaction failure rates. The lack of a standardized digital identity framework (eKYC) makes remote verification for remittance payouts challenging.
• Fragmented Payout Network: To achieve comprehensive coverage, a provider must connect with dozens of banks, the NAPAS system, and multiple e-wallets. Each connection requires a separate, non-standardized integration process, which creates a heavy operational burden.
• Regulatory Ambiguity: The past lack of a clear legal framework forced many companies to operate via bank partnership models, and this slowed innovation due to legacy systems. Resolving these last-mile issues is not just a fintech optimization task; it is a national economic strategy imperative to unlock the full potential of cross-border payment inflows.

The Growth Catalyst: Deciphering the Vietnam Fintech Regulatory Sandbox (Decree 94)

Decree 94/2025/ND-CP emerges as a landmark answer, officially establishing Vietnam's first Fintech Regulatory Sandbox for the banking sector, effective July 1, 2025. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Sandbox framework allows credit institutions and legally established fintech companies in Vietnam to test new products under SBV supervision. Initial authorized testing areas include Credit Scoring, Data Sharing via Open API, and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending.

*Strategic Focus: Although the testing must be confined to Vietnam, the Sandbox's goal is not to test the international leg of a transaction, but to perfect the domestic last-mile infrastructure. By resolving issues related to identification (eKYC) and domestic payout (Open API), the Sandbox directly facilitates the seamless and scalable intake of international funds.

The Practical Roadmap: Leveraging the Sandbox to Scale

A concrete strategy to leverage the Vietnam Fintech Sandbox to scale cross-border payments involves three core steps:

Step 1: Streamlining Beneficiary Identification with Advanced eKYC

eKYC is the foundational technology needed for digital finance, especially P2P Lending and Open API adoption. Sandbox Utilization: Fintech firms can propose testing advanced eKYC solutions (using AI, facial recognition) within the Sandbox framework. Cross-Border Impact: Once validated by the SBV, this approved eKYC process can be widely deployed for rapid identification of remittance recipients or businesses, thereby significantly lowering transaction failure rates for global partners.

Step 2: Building a Unified Payout Network via Open API Fintech

The Open API regulation is the most powerful tool within the Sandbox to address network fragmentation. Sandbox Utilization: A payment aggregator can enter the Sandbox to develop a standardized set of "Cross-Border Payout APIs," often through a strategic partnership with a major bank.

Cross-Border Impact: A successful Open API Fintech test will result in a single, SBV-recognized API that replaces dozens of individual bank connections, thus creating a standardized "payout highway" for international partners.

Step 3: Formalizing Trust through Regulated Partnerships

The Fintech Sandbox is inherently a "cooperation-as-a-service" framework, requiring a clear partnership structure between a fintech and a bank. This regulatory certainty is an invaluable competitive advantage. It transforms a new technology from a "risky initiative" into a "trusted solution," thereby enabling rapid expansion and scaling.

The Post-2027 Vision: A Barrier-Free Future for Cross-Border Payments

The ultimate goal of the Vietnam Fintech Regulatory Sandbox is to provide empirical data to build effective future regulations. Successful Open API tests could become the precursor to a national open banking standard, and validated eKYC solutions could form the foundation of a nationwide digital identity framework.

The Vietnam Fintech Regulatory Sandbox, through its strategic focus on validating eKYC and standardizing Open API, is aggressively solving the last-mile challenges. A robust domestic foundation is the prerequisite for efficiently handling global money flows, which will unlock Vietnam's century of digital finance and cement its position as a regional financial hub.