Vietnam Shuts Down Millions of Bank Accounts Over Biometric Rules

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from ICO Bench: As of September 1, 2025, banks across Vietnam are closing accounts deemed inactive or non-compliant with new biometric rules. Authorities estimate that more than 86 million accounts out of roughly 200 million are at risk if users fail to update their identity verification.
The State Bank of Vietnam has also introduced stricter thresholds for transactions:
- Facial authentication is mandatory for online transfers above 10 million VND (about $379).
- Cumulative daily transfers over 20 million VND ($758) also require biometric approval.

The policy is part of the central bank's broader 'cashless' strategy, aimed at combating fraud, identity theft, and deepfake-enabled scams. While many Vietnamese citizens have updated their biometric data without issue, the measure has disproportionately affected foreign residents and expatriates who cannot easily return to local branches and dormant accounts that had been left inactive for years. schwit1 highlights a post on X from Bitcoin expert and TFTC.io founder Marty Bent: 'If users don't comply by the 30th they'll lose their money. This is why we bitcoin.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.