The Philippines’ digital financial services leader is speeding up the rollout of the QR Ph P2M (person-to-merchant) across its enterprise partners. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officially adopted the national QR standard for merchant payments last month.
When the BSP initially introduced the QR Ph P2M standard in April of this year, the financial services and digital payment company was the first financial technology company to utilise it. Since then, the company has deployed the most QR Ph P2M acceptance sites across its enterprise base, totalling more than 160,000. This number includes both online and on-ground touchpoints for all types of merchants, including large companies, government agencies, MSMEs.
“We are excited to be at the forefront of the full rollout of QR Ph P2M. It’s a boost, especially for our enterprise customers, as they can start accepting payments from more consumers using just their QR Ph P2M code enabled by the company. We support the BSP in this thrust as this is a major step towards building a stronger payment ecosystem across businesses, consumers, and government,” said the President of the digital financial services leader.
Because they may take QR payments regardless of their customers’ bank or e-wallet accounts, businesses can offer consumers a more convenient digital payment alternative with the QR Ph P2M. Businesses do not require multiple QR codes on their counters to receive payments from various financial institutions. Consumers, on the other hand, may now experience more convenient and hassle-free transactions because they no longer need multiple apps to scan and pay a merchant’s QR code.
Since its pilot launch in April, the company has been providing QR Ph P2M to businesses of various sizes. The implementation of QR Ph P2M has been made easier for major enterprises equipped with the digital payment firm’s device and MSMEs using the company’s app since the digital payment company distributes software upgrades over the air. The digital payment provider is also replacing the QR codes of its partners’ physical stores with QR standees.
The QR Ph launch is part of the company’s effort to promote greater financial inclusion by allowing more Filipino companies to accept digital payments. In addition, on top of its digital wallet, the digital payment company has been providing revolutionary tools that make it easier for businesses to take any cashless payment from any Visa, Mastercard, and JCB credit, debit, and prepaid card; Banknet and QR Ph; and other e-wallets.
OpenGov Asia reported, electronic payments, which have grown in popularity since the government-imposed movement restrictions at the start of the pandemic, are expected to increase even more with the use of QR codes for payments. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) payment system is said to be using the quick response (QR) code as a catalyst to drive digital payments in the country.
An executive vice president of a commercial bank in the Philippines mentioned in a virtual briefing that the interoperability of the codes under the QR PH programme, which uses QR technology in financial transactions, provides significant potential for electronic payments.
He noted that the bank’s app-based digital prepaid bank account product will benefit greatly from the QR PH programme, particularly with the increase in merchants with whom account holders can easily transact.
“We see a lot of potential for these QR payments. We have onboarded a lot of merchants and, coupled with the QR PH interoperable QR PH QR codes, we see more digital payments,” he added. QR PH is among the programmes of the central bank eyed to increase the share of digital payments in the total financial transactions in the country.