NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Singapore is the latest country developing a national specification for QR code-based payments, seeking to reduce fragmentation of various QR code-based schemes.
The country’s financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is helping to lead the effort to publish a QR code standard by the end of the year. It follows QR code payments standards adopted or under development in such other countries as India, China, Thailand and Taiwan, and global specifications from the major international card schemes through their EMVCo joint venture.
The Singaporean financial regulator, along with another government agency, will co-chair a QR code task force that includes such banks as United Overseas Bank, DBS and OCBC; networks, such as Visa, China UnionPay, Mastercard and American Express and Singapore’s NETS; and payments service providers that use QR codes, such as Alipay and Singapore’s Liquid Pay. The task force was set up by a recently formed Payments Council, which promotes electronic payments.
