Across the globe, many in the payments industry are looking to QR codes as a way to increase financial inclusion and to make electronic payments easier for both the consumer and the merchants. To that end, the Payments Council of India (PCI) has come out with a list of recommendations to grow the use of QR codes in India.
A brief article in Express Computer reports that the PCI has released a statement that encourages the adoption of QR technology as a way for small merchant to begin accepting payments. It sees QR codes as the best way to offer merchants a low cost payments acceptance solution for many businesses in India. As the article explains:
Vishwas Patel, Chairman- Payments Council of India, Director- Infibeam Avenues Limited and a member of the RBI appointed committee said “Interoperability of payment systems benefit all participants in the ecosystem as well produce cost efficiencies and enable superior risk management. Therefore, the committee has suggested that RBI should only encourage Bharat QR and UPI QR or any other interoperable QR that may be developed in future. QR codes bring a significant advantage for informal establishments with low technology adoption.
Central to the PCI’s recommendation to the Reserve Bank of India is the acceptance of the merchant’s checking or savings account as sufficient for KYC and as the central location for settlement of payments.
The committee has thus also suggested that the merchant should be allowed to be on-boarded with the acquiring bank/regulated entity with a simple online agreement signing and a valid savings/current bank account where the transaction settlements will be made. The committee has also suggested that Government should allow a lower controlled interchange instead of zero MDR on QR code / UPI/ RuPay Debit card transactions, as well as give tax incentives to merchants who accept electronic transactions and promote incentive schemes to improve popularity of QR code transactions in the country.
While QR code payment options have been available in India and elsewhere, these suggestion from the PCI will make the adoption of QR codes for payments much simpler for merchants across the country.
Overview by Peter Reville, Director, Primary Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group
