In a major push to accelerate digitization of retail payments, State Bank of Pakistan issued Pakistan’s indigenous Standard for Quick Response (QR) code-based payments in March 2022. The QR standard was issued for both Person-to-Person and Person-to-Merchant-based payments; to be channeled through SBP’s Raast Instant Payment System. With the issuance of a single, countrywide QR code standard, Pakistan joins the list of countries that have taken similar steps to promote low-cost digitization of payment services, especially at the retail level. The objective of issuing the QR Code standard for payments is to provide interoperability by ensuring that all QR code scanning devices including mobile phones, are able to scan any QR code and seamlessly process payments, regardless of the entity which has issued the QR code.
This is the QR code based on the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) of the accounts maintained in financial institutions. The customers of banks, microfinance banks (MFBs) and electronic money institutions (EMIs) shall have their QR codes displayed within their mobile banking apps and internet banking portals to receive funds into their accounts. With the launch of the P2P QR Code, every accountholder in the country can generate his/her QR through their bank’s mobile app to receive payments from others. This has provided a friendly and convenient user experience for a person to send funds into another person’s account by scanning a QR instead of typing long account numbers or 24 digits IBANs. In addition, this has provided a much-needed facility to the small/micro merchants and self-employed individuals to accept payments digitally, who, otherwise had no mechanism to receive payments other than cash. As of 31st May 2024, the P2P QR (also known as IBAN-based QR) is enabled on all customer accounts of 25 banks within Pakistan listed below while few other banks are also in pipeline for development.
The Person-to-Merchant (P2M) QR code is designed to facilitate established businesses (retail as well as corporates) to receive payments through QR codes. The P2M QR is part of the Raast Person-to-Merchant payment scheme which enables various use-cases including; proximity payments, online/e-commerce purchases as well as utility bill payments. With the launch of Raast P2M scheme, it is envisioned that the footprint of digital acceptance points will increase and buying experiences of the customers will be transformed from cash to digital channels. The project is under development phase with few banks in commercial launch phase while others are in pipeline.
