THE huge cash transactions clogging Vietnam's monetary system could soon end with the State Bank set to allow personal cheques for the first time to kick-start retail banking.
The bank said yesterday that personal cheques and individual cheque accounts would be issued in Hanoi on a trial basis later this month, and possibly in Ho Chi Minh City within the next two months.
Vietnam's commercial banks would issue the chequebooks and accounts, to be cleared through the State Bank, with a computerised clearing system now being finalised.
It would also make payments much easier, possibly ending the sight of people dragging large amounts of dong along the streets to conduct increasing daily business.
At present, US$100 trades for just over one million dong - often issued in stacks of 5,000 dong notes.
Foreign bankers welcomed the move, the government's latest attempt to pull in the vast amount of cash circulating outside Vietnam's basic banking system.
Estimates have put the underground supply, stemming from a traditional mistrust of banks after decades of war and communism, as high as $3 billion.
