The Vietnamese prefer chip bank cards to magnetic strip ones, a recent survey by giant credit card group Visa International has indicated.

Up to 82 percent of the Vietnamese respondents expressed interest in chip cards, which have yet to be issued in the country, the Vietnam News reported Monday citing the survey result.

Plastic smart cards with a microchip that stores identification information and discount points can ensure security better than magnetic strip cards whose contents can be easily copied.

The state-owned Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank ( Incombank) and the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (Sacombank) are expected to accept payment via chip cards, and 4,400 chip terminals have already been deployed, said Visa's Vietnam country manager Stuart Tomlinson.

"We expect most chip card acceptance points will be ready by year-end and mass-issued chip cards to be in the market in 2007 ( in Vietnam)," the manager said.

Vietnam's card market has developed rapidly in recent years, with a 300-percent growth in credit cardholders in 2005. Banks in the country issued a total of around 2.1 million credit cards, including 1.6 million domestic cards as of late last year, according to the Vietnam Bank Card Association.

Currently, 90 percent of transactions in Vietnam are cash, with only 6 million people out of the nation's over 83 million using modern bank services, said the association.

Source: Xinhua