The rapid expansion of banking and financial activities along with new capital-raising mechanisms is opening up a wealth of opportunities while also creating an urgent need to strengthen the associated legal framework, facilitate capital mobilization, and minimize disputes.
A seminar entitled “Digital Transformation in Financial Transactions: Facilitating Capital Flows or Complicating Disputes,” jointly organized recently by the Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) of Ho Chi Minh City and the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC), brought together leading experts and more than 200 representatives from businesses, banks, credit institutions, and the legal sector.
Ms. Cao Thi Phi Van, Deputy Director of the ITPC, underscored the importance of digital transformation as a powerful driver that is expanding businesses’ access to financial services. While new transaction methods are giving businesses more options for accessing capital, making payments, investing, and connecting with markets, they are also creating an urgent need for a secure and transparent transaction environment.
Strengthening trust
As the digital economy reshapes virtually every aspect of economic and social life, finance has emerged as a major focal point of this transformation. With the digital economy in Ho Chi Minh City expected to account for more than 30 per cent of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) this year, the digital transformation wave is not only opening new horizons for production and business activities but also creating unprecedented legal challenges.
Associate Professor Pham Duy Nghia, Vice Chairman of VIAC, said the rapid expansion of banking and financial activities and new capital-raising mechanisms creates vast opportunities while simultaneously underscoring the urgent need to strengthen the legal framework. Based on VIAC’s experience, banking and financial disputes accounted for 10 per cent of all cases accepted in 2025; a significant figure reflecting the complexity and potential risks involved.
Nearly half of all disputes handled by VIAC also involved at least one foreign-invested enterprise (FIE) or foreign element, highlighting the increasingly close integration of Vietnamese businesses and investment activities with international and multinational relationships. This requires that the law not only facilitate capital mobilization and keep pace with new types of transactions but also safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all parties when disputes arise.
“Developing and strengthening dispute resolution mechanisms, particularly arbitration and mediation, has become critically important to reinforcing business confidence and creating a stable legal foundation for Vietnam’s financial market, which is increasingly integrating into the global economy,” Dr. Nghia emphasized.
Traceable data
Vietnam can leverage its strengths in digital payments to build a broader financial ecosystem in which transaction data can help expand access to credit and other financial services. For activities such as online lending, receivables financing, and supply chain financing, ensuring the legal validity of transactions, data quality, and technological security is critically important.
In particular, authenticating and fully preserving transaction information, while establishing appropriate dispute resolution mechanisms from the outset of operations, can help ensure the evidentiary value of transactions when risks arise and provide a solid foundation for the development of digital financial models.
Mr. Phan Duc Trung, Chairman of the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association (VBA), emphasized that trusted data depends not only on technology but, first and foremost, on the source of the data and its accuracy, authenticity, and traceability. This requires businesses to proactively control data from the point of entry and clearly identify the parties responsible for that data.
While blockchain can strengthen the ability to store and trace transactions, the technology itself does not guarantee the accuracy of input data. Blockchain service providers therefore need to place equal emphasis on data governance, user protection, and compliance mechanisms designed for the specific characteristics of digital transactions.
From the perspective of financial transactions, blockchain and tokenization have the potential to expand the ability to channel assets, cash flows, and transactions into capital-raising mechanisms, helping businesses access capital more transparently. However, for tokenized assets to genuinely participate in credit transactions, complex legal issues need to be clarified, including property rights, debt obligations, custody, and valuation.
Practical cases involving digital assets have brought issues surrounding property rights, transfers, and the allocation of responsibility among parties into sharper focus. As transactions become increasingly dependent on digital platforms and data, the evidentiary value of transaction data and the responsibilities of participating parties are also becoming issues that businesses need to consider carefully when resolving disputes. This calls for a more comprehensive and flexible approach from both the legal system and dispute resolution mechanisms.
According to experts, the challenge posed by digital asset disputes lies not only in determining rights but also in proving, preserving, and enforcing those rights in a complex digital environment. International experience shows that it may not be necessary to establish a separate mechanism specifically for digital asset disputes. Rather, existing regulations can be adapted and strengthened, with particular attention paid to emergency measures, the collection of evidence from third parties, and enforcement involving tokenized assets. Such an approach would create a flexible and effective legal framework capable of keeping pace with the rapid development of the market.
Balancing risk and innovation
Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Huyen, Program Lead for Financial Infrastructure Development in Vietnam and Cambodia at the International Finance Corporation under the World Bank and an arbitrator at VIAC, said Vietnam is witnessing strong growth in digital finance, reflected in a bank account ownership rate of 87 per cent and a 128.2 per cent surge in QR transactions between 2021 and 2025. This growth has even outpaced the global average, highlighting the market’s enormous potential.
However, the boom has also brought a range of non-traditional risks, including data leaks, online fraud, and cyberattacks, alongside the emergence of business models whose licensing status remains unclear. The existing legal framework, which remains fragmented across multiple regulations and lacks effective inter-agency coordination mechanisms, is becoming a major barrier.
To address these challenges, Ms. Huyen recommended that Vietnamese regulators move rapidly toward a “risk-based regulation” model, accelerate the development of regulatory sandboxes, establish a legal framework for open banking, and strengthen technological supervisory capabilities.
Other key recommendations include strengthening regulations on data, digital identification, cybersecurity, and consumer protection; expanding data sharing; enhancing fintech and dispute resolution oversight; and promoting closer coordination between regulators, banks, fintech companies, and other stakeholders. Together, these measures would help build a stronger and safer digital financial ecosystem.
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