You can use the banking app to scan QR payments in many countries

On the sidelines of the Financial Day 2026 press conference organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper on May 26, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Payment Joint Stock Company (Napas), commented that cross-border QR payment could become a new trend besides traditional international payment methods.

Currently, cross-border QR payment costs are only half as cheap as international card payments. This is an advantage that makes this form more popular with users and payment acceptance units.

In early April, Napas, Ant International and Vietcombank expanded the deployment of QR payment services between Vietnam and China. Customers can use the Vietcombank application to scan QR codes or create QR codes for payment acceptance units to scan when making transactions abroad, similar to scanning QR codes domestically. Transactions can be made in many markets such as China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and many countries in Europe and America where Alipay+ acceptance points are available.

In the opposite direction, Chinese tourists coming to Vietnam can also use Alipay e-wallet to scan VietQR Global codes at payment acceptance points in the Napas member network.

This is one of many bilateral payment cooperation that Vietnam implements with countries in the region. According to the plan, by the end of this year, Napas leaders said Vietnam plans to connect about 7 countries and territories, including Singapore, Korea and Taiwan.

Napas leaders said there are currently more than 20 banks and payment intermediaries participating in the cross-border QR payment network between Vietnam and regional countries. This network is expected to continue to expand in the near future.

At the press conference, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Director of Payment Department (State Bank), also said that cross-border QR transaction sales increased rapidly after only a short time of implementation.

Spending by Chinese tourists has increased sharply thanks to cross-border QR. Previously, daily transaction revenue was only a few hundred million VND, but now it has increased to many billion VND per day.

With banks actively participating and expanding payments to Chinese customers not only through Alipay but also through WeChat Pay, Mr. Tuan said this will contribute to attracting a large number of Chinese tourists to use these e-wallets to spend in Vietnam.

A representative of the State Bank said that as the number of people participating in bilateral payments increases, cross-border payment sales will exceed expectations.