Visa Helps Merchants Easily Adopt New, Global Specifications for QR Code Payments
Visa Ready program simplifies onboarding for small and medium-sized merchants who want to deploy QR code
digital payments
Today Visa (NYSE:V) announced its support of the new global QR Code Payment Specifications from EMVCo, the global technical body
that manages the EMV Specifications. The specifications cover consumer-presented and merchant-presented QR code use cases for
digital payment acceptance. QR codes are two-dimensional machine-readable barcodes, used to facilitate mobile payments at the
point-of-sale.
Visa and the other EMVCo Members worked to develop these new globally interoperable EMV specifications. Visa has already
successfully enabled the merchant-presented QR technology in 15 countries around the world, with India, Kenya and Nigeria currently
live in market with both bank and merchant partners.
“We’ve already seen tremendous progress towards adoption of standardized, interoperable QR code payment systems in the
developing world,” said Sam Shrauger, SVP, Digital Products, Visa. “We are working with governments and central banks in countries
like India to develop and implement QR code payment solutions that provide the convenience and security that are synonymous with
Visa and help the journey toward a cashless future.”
Easy Implementation for Merchants
Visa has enabled the growth of merchant-presented QR code payments around the world with its innovative mobile payments
solution, mVisa. mVisa allows consumers to pay for goods and services by scanning a QR code on a smart phone or entering a merchant
number into their feature phones. Payment goes straight from the consumer’s Visa account into the merchant’s account and provides
real-time notification to both parties. mVisa is completely interoperable, meaning that the consumer and the merchant do not need
to be customers of the same bank. This brings the same convenience, security and reliability provided by the trusted Visa
brand.
For merchants eager to harness the power of QR code payments, the Visa Ready Program has adopted the interoperable QR standards
to develop tools and capabilities which help easy generation and deployment of QR code merchants by banks, processors and merchant
aggregators. Once enrolled, merchants can freely accept payments from any country or bank given mVisa’s interoperability while
trusting Visa will securely and efficiently process each transaction.
QR Code Payments Driving a Cashless Future
As digital payments help continue a shift toward a cashless future, this new global specification is an important step that
promotes interoperability and standardizes the fast growing ecosystem of QR code payments across the world. Already, 33 banks and
more than 328,000 merchants across India, Kenya and Nigeria have adopted the interoperable standards as they accelerate their QR
code digital payment programs.
“mVisa enables successful completion of the transaction independent of the mobile operator service on both the consumer and the
merchant’s phone, and the consumers and merchant’s banks,” said Shrauger. “This addresses a major challenge with mobile money
programs, and lets consumers and merchants choose their own bank or mobile operator.”
Reserve Bank of India has encouraged the adoption of standardized QR code payments to provide access to low-cost, secure digital
payments to millions of consumers and merchants. Working with our partners, Visa is converting both everyday and recurring cash
purchases to digital payments through direct integrations with supermarket chains and large utility billers. By presenting dynamic
QR codes to consumers that provide a seamless payment experience, billers such as Tata Sky, Idea Cellular, Reliance Energy,
Mahanagar Gas, as well as Pizza Hut and supermarket chains Nakumatt, Spar, and Zucchini, are bringing benefits of digital payments
to millions of potential customers.
Visa intends to replicate this success in 12 other countries where mVisa has been enabled: Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia,
Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.
About Visa
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions,
and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the
world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second,
with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit
or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers
more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit https://usa.visa.com/ and @VisaNews.
Visa Inc.
Andy Gerlt, 415-805-5153
agerlt@visa.com
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