(22 February 2017 – India) Indian consumers are now able to make QR code-based mobile payments using BharatQR, a “low cost, interoperable mobile acceptance solution” backed by the Indian government and developed by Mastercard, Visa and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The service is supported by American Express and 14 national banks.
The banks ready to launch the service are: Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Citi Union Bank, Development Credit Bank, Karur Vysya Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, RBL Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Vijaya Bank and Yes Bank.
NPCI says many other “leading banks” are at various stages of implementing support for BharatQR, which is designed to support NPCI’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform and the country’s biometric ID database Aadhaar as “QR-based payments scale in the country.”
“BharatQR has three key benefits. First, consumers will not need to scan different QR codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks,” NPCI says.
“Second, merchants will only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank’s mobile application.
“Third, the underlying specification for BharatQR can be implemented in other countries to deliver a globally interoperable solution.”
“The implementation of the BharatQR standard will be seamless and only happen at the back end, meaning merchants do not need to change their existing QR codes,” NPCI adds.
“NPCI, Mastercard and Visa developed BharatQR with provisions for three additional fields: bank account and IFS (Indian Financial System) code, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar.
“These additional fields provide banks the option to populate them as QR-based payments scale in the country. American Express is also on board to adopt these standards.”
The deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shri R Gandhi said: “This is a momentous occasion for the payments industry in India with the launch of this global first of its kind, low-cost, interoperable mobile-based acceptance solution.
“Innovative interoperable solutions like BharatQR that are easy to scale, provide a seamless customer experience and, above all, are safe and secure are essential to accelerating India’s transition to a less-cash society.”