HÀ NỘI – FPT Corporation has been selected as the main investor of Myanmar’s national financial switching system.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed between the corporation and the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) on Sunday, FPT Information System (FPT IS) – a member of the FPT Corporation – will start developing the financial switching system this month and the project is expected to be completed in a year.

FPT will offer MPU a 10-year lease on the system and receive some percentage of the charges on electronic transactions.

The operation of the national financial switching system would help Myanmar speed up the process of converting the system of traditional cash transactions into a non-cash payment system, FPT IS General Director Phạm Minh Tuấn said.

The new payment system will be implemented for banking services such as automated teller machines (ATM); point of sale (POS); e-commerce; and value-added services for mobile devices; as also Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) card services; and electronic billing.

In the near future, 24 out of 40 local financial organisations will be connected to the system and the number is likely to increase.

Myanmar now has 1,800 ATMs and 6,000 POS, and has issued two million cards. However, 95 per cent of the transactions are still being made in cash.

FPT’s strategic partner in the project is the National Payment Corporation of Việt Nam (NAPAS).

“In recent years, FPT has shifted its business to the service-leasing model. We believe the corporation will benefit more from the new model than the traditional one,” Tuấn said.

In Việt Nam, FPT has helped many customers to change financial systems, such as Việt Nam National Financial Switching Joint-Stock Company (Banknetvn), the Bank for Foreign Trade of Việt Nam (Vietcombank), the Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BIDV) and Sài Gòn Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank). – VNS