86 million People to Lose Access to Their Bank Accounts

In a move hailed by officials as a crackdown on crime, Vietnam is set to close more than 86 million bank accounts.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) insists the new biometric requirement is a necessary “cleanup” to weed out fraudulent activity and accelerate the nation’s transition to a cashless society. On paper, it sounds like a triumph of security and efficiency. But in reality? It’s a terrifying precedent that asks citizens to trade their financial autonomy for the promise of safety.

One Reddit user, a former foreign contractor in Vietnam, said he had to fly back to the country just to keep his bank account open. With no remote solution available, he faced the closure of his HSBC account unless he returned in person to update his biometrics.

The official narrative is a siren song of progress: accounts without biometric verification, such as facial scans or fingerprints, are vulnerable to AI-driven scams. By forcing this biometric check, the government aims to create a more secure, modern banking system.

In the central bank’s defence, out of roughly 200 million bank accounts in the country, only 113 million personal and 711,000 organizational accounts are valid after the new biometric authentication. This leaves nearly 86 million accounts inactive, which the bank suspects are unregistered, forgotten, or fraudulent.

But this mass closure, which follows a similar recent purge of 3 million accounts in Thailand, highlights a fundamental flaw in centralized finance. When your money exists solely as data on a bank’s server, it is subject to the whims of the authorities who govern that data.

If your account is unverified, frozen, or flagged for a reason you don’t understand, you have no recourse. You can’t simply withdraw your cash from under the mattress. The state holds the keys to your entire financial existence, and they can revoke them at will.

So, as we cheer the demise of physical cash and embrace the seamless convenience of digital payments, let’s take a moment to consider the risks. What could possibly go wrong? Only the very real possibility of a financial lockout. When your access to your own money is a privilege, not a right, you’re not just moving into the future; you’re building a cage.