Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) held a soft launch of DuitNow QR, with Public. DuitNow QR is established under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF). ICTF mandates that PayNet, as the country’s shared payment infrastructure provider, implement an interoperable and common QR standard for Malaysia.
Malaysia will now have a common QR standard which will work for customers of all participating banks and e-wallets. DuitNow QR will foster an efficient, competitive and innovative payment landscape in Malaysia by enabling inter-operability, promoting collaborative competition and providing fair and open access to the shared payment infrastructure.
Through DuitNow QR, users can make payment from any participating Banks or e-Wallets mobile apps. Merchants would only need to display one QR Code, the DuitNow QR, to accept payments, as opposed to the current practice of displaying multiple proprietary QR codes at payment counters.
Present at the soft launch were Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Tay Ah Lek, Chief Executive Officer of Public Bank, and Mr Peter Schiesser, Group Chief Executive Officer, PayNet. Tan Sri Dato’ Tay Ah Lek performed the first DuitNow QR transaction using Public Bank’s PB engage mobile app at Pie Kingdom, a popular café in Bangsar South, which Public Bank has enrolled to accept DuitNow QR.
“We are delighted to be the first bank adopting DuitNow QR. With this soft launch, Public Bank will bring innovative payment solutions to our retail consumers and SME business clients. Driven by our new PB engage mobile banking app, we anticipate that the DuitNow QR will see strong take-up,” said Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Tay.
In addition to Public Bank, there are 33 banks that will be enabling DuitNow QR in their mobile banking apps. These banks will progressively go live over the next 12 months. “We have also received applications from 12 licensed e-wallet providers and non-bank acquirers to participate in the DuitNow QR scheme and we expect to admit a number of those in the next 6 months,” said Mr Peter Schiesser.
“At the moment, we see a proliferation of QR codes from a multitude of e-wallets which is confusing for consumers. In addition, e-wallet providers are incurring substantial merchant acquiring costs because they are each signing up the same set of merchants for their respective proprietary networks. With DuitNow QR, a merchant needs to sign up with only one bank or e-wallet acquirer, and customers of all participating banks and e-wallets would be able to make DuitNow QR payments to the merchant using their respective mobile apps,” added Mr Schiesser.
The introduction of DuitNow QR extends DuitNow to allow fund transfers to merchants, directed using the merchants’ DuitNow QR codes.
