National Bank Updates Progress on Unified QR Code for Interbank Payments

The National Bank of Kazakhstan continues work on implementing a unified QR system for interbank payments, according to its head, Timur Suleimenov, Orda.kz reports.

The system will be operated by the National Payment Corporation, which currently processes around 90% of all non-cash transactions in the country, equivalent to 5.9 trillion tenge daily.

We have three banks that have joined now, and I think we have nine more in test mode. By the end of the year, we have the task of either connecting everyone through standard partnerships with banks, or we are simultaneously pushing through parliament a number of legislative amendments aimed at the mandatory participation of all banks in the system,
 Suleimenov said while speaking on the sidelines of the Senate.

He noted that the transition to a single QR code will require time and resources, given the complexity of integrating existing systems.

Everyone is trying to develop their ecosystem. It is necessary to ensure connection to a single center, to a single operator. Additional money, human resources, financial, technological resources. It is difficult to demand that they do this here and now, but we, in a good sense of the word, applied pressure on them. This is constantly one of the topics for discussion when we meet with banks. That is, I, my deputies, and our technical teams are engaged in this,
 he added.

The unified QR code is expected to enable real-time payments between different banks, not only by phone number, but also by scanning a QR code.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova