Small merchants at Ben Thanh market adopt mobile payment

MasterCard and Sacombank have announced a partnership which is equipping small merchants at the iconic Ben Thanh market in Vietnam with mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) terminals, enabling consumers to pay for their purchases using payment cards for the first time.

As a result of this partnership, the Ben Thanh market in Ho Chi Minh, which previously operated on a cash-only basis, has become the first wet market in Vietnam to accept electronic payments.

MasterCard said a month after the initial launch of mPOS with Sacombank, around 300 of such terminals have been deployed at Ben Thanh market and with insurance companies, providing a key impetus for driving the adoption of electronic payments in Vietnam. mPOS is a compact card reader that can be plugged into smartphones and tablets, and functions as a card acceptance terminal over 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

Arn Vogels, country manager for Indochina, MasterCard said, “In Vietnam, limited acceptance is one of the key factors that hinders the development of electronic payments. Our collaboration with Sacombank extends the benefits of electronic payments to both merchants and consumers. Merchants who were previously unable to accept card payments now can use their own mobile phones as point-of-sale terminals to process card transactions, embedding them more firmly in the financial system. Meanwhile consumers who previously might have only carried cash now have more reasons to be banked and adopting electronic payments.”

MasterCard said mobile devices are rapidly transforming the payments experience. Merchants, including door-to-door sales people and street vendors that have never accepted card payments are turning to mPOS solutions that help expand their customer base and sales.