MobiFone, Viettel and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group prepared to launch pilots of operator-run mobile money services designed to boost the uptake of non-cash transactions in Vietnam, state media reported.

Vietnam News Agency announced the country’s Ministry of Information and Communications, together with the State Bank of Vietnam, gave the green light to mobile operators to begin the trials of financial services without having to link them to formal bank accounts.

In a statement, Vietnam’s minister of information and technology Nguyen Manh Hung said the scheme would help promote “non-cash payment to all people”.

Acting chairman of Viettel, Le Dang Dung, said its planned service would be suitable for those in remote areas with limited access to financial services.

A MobiFone spokesperson added mobile money would support Vietnam’s e-Payment system and would be an important component for the fourth industrial revolution.

According to the World Bank’s Findex, which measures financial inclusion across the globe, by the end of 2017 31 per cent of Vietnamese citizens over 15 had a bank account. This was flat from the proportion found in its previous study from 2014.