The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ("BSP") has approved guidelines that will facilitate the transition to the use of the National Quick Response ("QR") Code Standard ("QR Ph") for all QR code-enabled payment services. QR Ph was developed by the Philippine Payments Management, Inc., the payment system management body accredited by BSP in accordance with BSP Circular No. 1055.
Under the BSP’s guidelines, all BSP-supervised financial institutions acting as payment service providers ("PSPs") and which offer QR-enabled payment services, as well as PSPs that participate in the InstaPay automated clearing house, are required to use and display their QR Ph on their internet and mobile channels starting 1 July 2023. Following this date, non-QR Ph codes or proprietary QR codes shall be disabled and shall not be made available to the public. These covered institutions are required to submit the status of their compliance within 30 days from 23 February 2023 or the date of the memorandum and are reminded to provide appropriate training and guidance on the QR code system to their employees, including store cashiers and managers.
By adopting QR Ph, BSP aims to encourage greater use of digital payments by eliminating the need for merchants and customers to maintain several accounts, each with its own QR code. The use of QR Ph is intended to provide a solitary and more consistent payment mode for electronic transactions.
