A sign of things to come for countries like Australia?

BANK ACCOUNTS FROZEN

Over 86 million bank accounts have been deactivated or frozen by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), as part of a comprehensive national “data-cleansing” effort.

This massive deactivation was implemented to ensure all active bank accounts are linked to “verified, biometrically authenticated identities” using facial recognition technology.

In other words, a Digital ID linked to one’s bank account.

Truly the stuff of dystopian nightmares.

The “deactivation process”, in their own words, specifically targeted accounts that failed to meet new biometric verification requirements – with the SBV considering this a “system cleanup measure” to ‘prevent fraud and cybercrime’.

This shift began at the start of January, where it was announced all unverified bank accounts in Vietnam would face restrictions on transactions (online, QR-based, etc) if the biometric ID information for that account is not updated by the end of the year.

More recently, beginning July 1 2025, it was announced all corporate account legal representatives must undergo biometric/ID verification. If they don’t, those accounts will have their electronic, digital banking and payment services suspended by the end of 2025.

This week, with the cooling period of notice now expired, the country has taken the additional step of following through with the freezing of tens of millions of accounts.

This action is part of Vietnam’s broader digital transformation initiative, which includes issuing electronic ID accounts to foreigners and implementing biometric systems across various sectors. The country is actively pursuing digital identity infrastructure.

Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department at SBV, noted that after recent cleansing, only 113 million personal and 711,000 organisational accounts are now deemed “active” – out of 200 million total registered.

“This is a data-cleansing revolution,” he commentated.

“While the total number of bank accounts remains 200 million, by September 2025, once the legal framework is complete, all accounts without biometric data will be closed to prevent scams and fraud. After seven years of promoting non-cash payments, we are moving toward real efficiency.”

The government argues the money in these accounts has not been “taken” or “seized” – instead, the funds will remain in the deactivated accounts and rendered “inaccessible” until proper Digital ID verification is completed by the individual or company.

You know, just like how Aussies were never “forced” to get the COVID jab – they simply gave you the “option to choose” (there was no choice). The same coercive playbook at play.

This move by Vietnam has highlighted the exact dangers of digital identification and a cashless society that ‘conspiracy theorists’ have warned about for years now.

Many are concerned about the Orwellian levels of financial accessibility and government control on display – with cryptocurrency advocates stating the move highlights the need for decentralised financial alternatives like Bitcoin.

This is the combining of two very sinister pieces of the puzzle to form a larger picture, and if Australians don’t raise their concerns about the end of cash and Digital ID – then we may very well find ourselves ending up in a similar situation to Vietnam.

COMING TO AUSTRALIA?

Digital ID has already well and truly arrived in Australia, with the underpinning legislation that governs the process taking effect on 1 December 2024.

Australia’s Digital ID system will go live NEXT MONTH
RELATED ARTICLE

From there, it wasn’t long before the first non-government Digital ID exchange was accredited to the ‘Big 4’ banks by the government.

Meaning, technically, we could see the exact same scenario happen in Australia one day.

Australia’s major banks launch Digital ID service
RELATED ARTICLE

The banking sector is one of the main driving forces for Digital ID in private industry as well, raising concerns for what might happen if the government issues notices to freeze accounts.

Mastercard, for example, launched their “smile to pay” system, supposed to ‘save time’ for customers at checkouts with biometrics.

‘Pay with a smile’: Mastercard launches biometric purchase system
RELATED ARTICLE

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have also recently published a study that explores how central banks could “continue to implement monetary policy operations in hypothetical tokenised wholesale financial markets”.

They found that central banks could “customise and deploy policy implementation tools using programmable smart contracts” in the future.

In other words, ‘smart’ digital currency that may expire, be region locked, and more.

“Programmable Money”: How central banks may implement ‘smart digital currencies’
RELATED ARTICLE

The best part about that? Australia’s central bank is 100% supportive of the plans.

Indeed, it won’t take long before similar Orwellian freezing actions are taken here in Australia given the current state of affairs.

We are already seeing how Digital ID can be weaponised to suit a government agenda – including with social media age verification schemes.

Pending age verification programs will not just be limited to social media platforms, but will also include search engines and map apps. Over time, the scope will likely continue to expand and broaden to engulf much of the internet.