It's been a slow tightening of financial transfers in Vietnam.

Not that long ago, it was all cash. Then bank transfers became more common, but it was the wild west compared to the US. You could transfer billions in VND (millions in USD) from whatever account to whatever account - nobody was keeping track. Whether a legitimate payment or a bribe, it was fine.

Then identifies were tightly linked to accounts, starting with national ID numbers and now including facial recognition. Everyone needed to get register or lose access to your bank account (you still owned it, but no online transactions allowed).

The government also put in a new law that requires transfers over a certain amount will now need to be reported as to their purpose or else they'll be considered income and taxed.

In no time Vietnam has gone from wild west to more restrictive than the West!

> now including facial recognition

As a foreigner with a beard living in Vietnam, the facial recognition is an absolute pain. It took me an hour of sitting in a bank with the staff taking photos of me over and over, then whenever I need to do a facial recognition scan in the app (thankfully just for large transactions) it's a complete crapshoot as to whether it'll work.

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg regards to problems of banking in Vietnam as a foreigner, and it seems to be getting worse and worse.

I think its only the US that's an outlier in the west.

Here in the Netherlands your biometrics are registered with your ID card. Anyone that has gotten a new dutch ID card pretty much had to scan their fingerprints. Your bank account is also linked to your ID card etc. Reporting of big amounts is also standard practice in the west Europe. Know people that had to work on those system.

Also you don't want foreign money being able to transact freely its a disaster recipe to get regime change going. Especially a country like Vietnam that could be used as a battering ram against China. Which makes it a prime target for western NGOs.