Vietnam's tax authority and credit bureau CIC sign data-sharing deal; scope undecided

Implications

Facts

Agreement: Vietnam's General Department of Taxation and the National Credit Information Centre (CIC) signed a cooperation agreement to exchange and share data between the tax authority and the banking sector. The signing date has not been reported. Source: Viet Nam News (2026-09-25). Content: credit information held by the CIC will be used as supplementary information for the tax authority's management and analysis of taxpayer compliance. Tax data will be used by the CIC to assess taxpayers' creditworthiness. Source: as above. Open questions: the full scope of data to be connected and how specific data will be used in lending decisions have not been disclosed, nor has an implementation timeline. The SBV intends to encourage pilots of cash-flow-based lending using the data. The CIC currently collects nine groups of information from financial institutions, which do not include card numbers or payment transaction histories. Source: as above.

Analysis

In September, the SBV Governor called for integrating tax and e-invoice data into SME underwriting (19 September), and this agreement forms part of that foundation. Meanwhile, Circular 46/2026/TT-NHNN, effective 1 November, requires verifiable consent for third-party sharing of credit information, so expanded data use and discipline are proceeding in parallel.

By comparison, the Bank of Thailand has also included alternative-data underwriting for SMEs with thin financial records in its measures (September 2026). Vietnam is one step more concrete institutionally, through a formal link between the tax authority and the credit bureau, though timing remains undecided.

Counterpoints and uncertainties

The agreement is only a framework; data scope, timing and costs are undecided. Micro-businesses with many cash transactions show lower sales in tax data than in reality, so heavy reliance on tax data could actually disadvantage them in underwriting.