Knowledge base

The State Bank of Vietnam has issued Consolidated Document No. 26/VBHN-NHNN, merging Decision 17/2004/QD-NHNN with three rounds of amendments (2011, 2015, and most recently Circular 75/2025/TT-NHNN, effective December 31, 2025) governing payment methods for trade in goods and services at Vietnam-Cambodia border areas. The rules apply only to transactions conducted at the border areas themselves, not to Vietnam-Cambodia trade in general. The affected parties are Vietnamese enterprises, licensed household import-export traders, border residents, commercial banks operating in border provinces, and Cambodian trading partners. Five payment methods are permitted: bank transfer in freely convertible currency, payment via a Cambodian trader's VND or foreign-currency account at a Vietnamese bank, payment via VND-KHR accounts between banks of the two countries, cash payment in VND or KHR (with a customs declaration requirement when carrying cash across the border), and barter. The most notable change in this update is administrative in nature: the term 'State Bank Branch of the province' was renamed 'State Bank Regional Branch' to reflect the central bank's reorganization, one now-unused payment method (point d of Article 3 and all of Article 8) was repealed, and the periodic reporting template was replaced. Businesses engaged in Cambodia border trade and the banks that serve them should update their reporting templates and the name of the recipient agency, but the update does not create significant new obligations.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued Consolidated Document No. 13/VBHN-NHNN, merging Circular 19/2025/TT-NHNN (effective September 15, 2025) with its amending Circular 64/2025/TT-NHNN (effective February 15, 2026) into a single, unified set of rules governing the operating network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) - that is, their branches, transaction offices, representative offices, support units, and transaction points. Key content includes the financial conditions an MFI must meet to open a branch or transaction office (at least 12 months of operation, a Tier 1 capital-to-total-assets ratio of at least 10 percent, bad debt capped at 3 percent); a formula that caps the number of branches and transaction offices an MFI may operate based on its actual charter capital; a three-tier approval structure (the SBV Governor, the Department of Credit Institution Supervision, and SBV Regional Branches); and tight controls on transaction points, including a cap of VND 1.5 million per customer per day on voluntary cash deposits. This document mainly affects microfinance institutions themselves - lenders that serve poor and near-poor households and micro-enterprises. General SME owners and household businesses are not directly bound by it, but should be aware of it if they borrow through a microfinance channel or partner with a local MFI, since it shapes how widely and how quickly those institutions can expand or contract their branch networks.

Decree 225/2025/ND-CP, effective from August 15, 2025, amends and supplements detailed regulations on investor selection under the Bidding Law. This document modifies previous decrees to improve the legal framework for bidding, creating a clearer legal basis for the investor selection process in public investment projects and state-funded projects. This decree affects businesses participating in investment project bidding, especially enterprises in construction, infrastructure, and PPP (public-private partnership) projects. Changes in procedures, bidding documents, evaluation criteria, and responsibilities of participating parties will directly impact how businesses prepare for and participate in bidding processes. For SME businesses, understanding the new regulations on investor selection is important if they wish to participate in public investment projects or cooperate with the state. Changes in administrative procedures, financial and technical capacity requirements, and document evaluation methods will require businesses to update internal processes and ensure full compliance to increase their chances of winning bids.

This document is a consolidated version of Decree No. 146/2025/ND-CP (effective July 1, 2025) merged with three later amending decrees: Decree 235/2025/ND-CP (industrial promotion, effective October 15, 2025), Decree 26/2026/ND-CP (chemicals, effective January 17, 2026), and Decree 137/2026/ND-CP (multi-level marketing, effective July 1, 2026). It transfers approval and licensing authority away from the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) down to MOIT itself or to provincial People's Committees, across 25 chapters covering almost every sector MOIT regulates: oil and gas, chemicals, trade promotion, petroleum retail, LPG/LNG/CNG gas trading, tobacco, alcohol, market development, industrial explosives, electrical safety, occupational health and safety, import-export trade, trading activities of foreign-invested enterprises, food safety, product quality, electricity, consumer protection, e-commerce, energy efficiency, minerals, supporting industries, and automobiles. For businesses operating in these conditional business lines, the most important change is which agency now receives and processes applications. Many licenses and certificates that previously required approval from MOIT or the Prime Minister, such as alcohol production and distribution licenses, LPG/LNG/CNG export-import certificates, and tobacco raw-material processing permits, are now handled by provincial People's Committees or the Minister of Industry and Trade. Detailed procedures sit in 16 appendices to the original decree, so businesses should check the appendix matching their industry to identify the correct new authority and avoid filing with the wrong agency. The decree also sets general principles: agencies receiving delegated authority bear full responsibility for exercising it, the state budget funds the resources needed, and procedures involving fees continue to follow existing fee regulations. The entire decentralization framework stays in effect until March 1, 2027, unless extended by a law or National Assembly resolution, or superseded earlier by new legislation in the relevant sector.

The General Department of Customs responded to a company's inquiry about the 2026 VAT rate for imported goods under HS code 8517.62.43 (land mobile information terminal equipment). Under Decree 174/2025/ND-CP dated 23 June 2025, the VAT reduction policy applies from 1 July 2025 through 31 December 2026, but telecommunications sector goods are explicitly excluded from the reduction. The Customs authority did not confirm a specific tax rate in the reply, instead directing the business to review Decree 174/2025/ND-CP and Official Letter 20215/CHQ-NVTHQ dated 20 August 2025 for implementation guidance. For further clarification, the company should contact the customs office where their customs declaration is registered.

The Customs authority responded to a metal products manufacturer (pliers, screwdrivers, and other hand tools, 95% exported) regarding the timing of electronic invoice issuance for exports and customs clearance conditions under current regulations. On clearance: goods are cleared after completing customs procedures. If tax has not been fully paid, a credit institution guarantee or tax deferral arrangement is required. Goods subject to specialized inspection are cleared upon receiving an inspection waiver notice or a satisfactory inspection result. The Customs authority reminded the company to refer to specific provisions in the 2014 Customs Law, Decree 08/2015/ND-CP, and Circulars 38/2015/TT-BTC and 39/2018/TT-BTC for proper declaration and import-export tax compliance.

Decision 01/2025/QD-TTg issued by the Prime Minister on January 3, 2025, and effective from February 18, 2025, officially abolishes in its entirety Decision 78/2010/QD-TTg regarding the tax exemption threshold for imported goods sent via express delivery services. This decision holds significant implications for businesses, particularly e-commerce enterprises and individuals who frequently import goods through express delivery services. Previously, Decision 78/2010 stipulated that imported goods valued at VND 1 million or less sent via express delivery would be exempt from import duties. The abrogation of this decision means that the old exemption threshold is no longer valid, and new regulations on import duties will be applied according to other current legal documents. For small and medium enterprise owners, especially those engaged in importing goods or receiving items from abroad, it is important to note that from February 18, 2025, all imported consignments via express delivery services must comply with the latest tax regulations under the Law on Export Tax and Import Tax and related guiding documents. Businesses should proactively update themselves on new exemption thresholds and tax calculation methods to avoid unexpected costs during the goods importation process.

Consolidated Document No. 12/VBHN-NHNN merges Circular No. 62/2024/TT-NHNN with amendments introduced by Circular 26/2025/TT-NHNN and Circular 69/2025/TT-NHNN. It sets out the conditions, application dossiers, and approval procedures the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) uses to approve the reorganization of commercial banks and non-bank credit institutions. Covered forms of reorganization include mergers, consolidations, conversion of legal form (from limited liability company to joint stock company and vice versa), and conversion between general-purpose and specialized finance companies. Under the rules, a credit institution formed through a merger or consolidation must maintain charter capital at or above the legal minimum for its institution type and comply with prudential safety ratios after reorganization. Approval proceeds in two stages - in-principle approval followed by final approval - each with its own processing timeline and a detailed dossier requirement, including a merger or consolidation scheme, the merger or consolidation contract, three years of audited financial statements, and documentation confirming the transaction is not a prohibited economic concentration under competition law. This document governs the internal restructuring process for banks and finance companies themselves. It is not a tax, accounting, e-invoice, labor, or customs regulation applicable to ordinary SMEs. As such it falls outside RegHub's core coverage areas and has been assessed as not suitable for publication on the platform.

This is a consolidated version of Circular No. 23/2024/TT-BCT dated 07 November 2024 (effective 01 January 2025), as amended by Circular No. 38/2025/TT-BCT (effective 01 July 2025) and Circular No. 15/2026/TT-BCT (effective 10 April 2026). It governs the management and use of industrial explosives and explosive precursor chemicals under the authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), applying to agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals that produce, trade, import/export, transport, store, or use these materials - primarily mining, construction blasting and precursor-chemical trading companies. Key content includes: the official lists of permitted industrial explosives and explosive precursors; the division of licensing authority among the Department of Industrial Safety Technique and Environment, the Chemicals Agency, and provincial People's Committees for issuing, reissuing, or adjusting production certificates, trading permits, import/export permits, and usage permits; the procedure for registering new explosive products; and the construction and operation of a national database on industrial explosives and precursors. Businesses in this sector must conduct safety risk assessments, prepare blasting plans and blasting passports, build emergency response plans, and submit periodic six-month/annual reports (due by the 18th-20th of June and December) plus ad-hoc reports when incidents occur. This is a specialized safety and licensing regulation for the explosives industry - it does not touch tax, accounting, e-invoicing, labor, or customs matters, so it is only relevant to the small number of mining, blasting-service, and explosive-precursor trading businesses.

This is a consolidated text issued by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV/NHNN) merging Circular 50/2024/TT-NHNN dated October 31, 2024 (effective January 1, 2025) with the amendments introduced by Circular 77/2025/TT-NHNN dated December 31, 2025 (effective March 1, 2026). It sets mandatory safety and security requirements for providing online banking services, applying to credit institutions, foreign bank branches, payment intermediary service providers, credit information companies, and (new under the amendment) Mobile Money service providers. Key technical requirements include: information systems must meet security level 3 or higher (level 4 or higher for financial switching and clearing systems) and comply with Vietnamese standard TCVN 11930:2017; network infrastructure must include application and database firewalls plus DoS/DDoS protection; application software must undergo source-code control and testing against the OWASP Top Ten (web) or OWASP Mobile Application Security standard (mobile); Mobile Banking apps must be distributed only through official app stores and must detect and auto-exit when debuggers, emulators, or rooted/jailbroken devices are detected. Transaction confirmation is risk-tiered, combining passwords, PINs, OTPs (SMS/Voice/Soft Token), biometric matching, or e-signatures; payment transactions by organizational customers must separate the creation and approval steps, except for household businesses or micro-enterprises using simplified accounting. A notable new element introduced by Circular 77/2025/TT-NHNN is the «newly established organizational customer» category (entities incorporated or newly onboarded within the past 12 months), which must undergo a risk assessment to determine when biometric or secure e-signature verification applies, with exemptions for state agencies, listed companies, and Fortune Global 500 entities. The new rules under Articles 3 and 10 take effect on a staggered timeline: providers serving both individual and organizational customers must comply from July 1, 2026, while providers serving organizational customers only must comply from October 1, 2026. This is a cybersecurity and technical-standards document for banks and payment intermediaries, outside the tax, accounting, e-invoice, labor, or customs scope that RegHub tracks.

The State Bank of Vietnam has issued Consolidated Document 41/VBHN-NHNN, merging Circular 21/2024/TT-NHNN (effective July 1, 2024) with amendments under Circular 85/2025/TT-NHNN (effective December 31, 2025), providing a comprehensive framework for letter of credit (L/C) operations and related banking services offered by commercial banks, cooperative banks, and foreign bank branches. The regulation sets out the conditions customers must meet to request issuance, confirmation, negotiation, or reimbursement of an L/C (legal capacity, a viable capital-use plan, and financial capacity to pay); caps interest rates on overdue balances (no more than 150% of the in-term rate) and late-payment interest (no more than 10% per year); requires banks to publicly post their fee schedules; and permits electronic L/C operations subject to minimum security, authentication, and customer-record retention standards. For import-export businesses and foreign investors, this is the foundational text to understand before negotiating contracts settled by L/C: the credit amount cannot exceed the value of the underlying sale contract or the L/C itself, the issuing currency must match the payment currency in the contract, and non-resident customers can only obtain issuance or confirmation when they meet additional conditions on capital contribution, full collateral, or a resident beneficiary. The most notable change in this consolidation is a procedural update to which State Bank unit receives banks' internal L/C regulations (now the Credit Institution Supervision Department and regional State Bank branches) - reflecting the State Bank's internal restructuring rather than a substantive change to L/C operations themselves.