PayMaya adopts national QR code

MANILA, Philippines — PayMaya Philippines Inc., the digital financial services arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations, said it is the first e-wallet to officially adopt QR Ph, the national quick response (QR) code standard launched by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). 

In a statement, PayMaya said users can now receive money transfers from other institutions such as UnionBank, Landbank, Chinabank, AUB and RCBC via the QR Ph code generated within the PayMaya app, represented by the QR Ph logo in the middle of the code bearing the national colors of the Philippines. 

“To receive money from other banks and financial institutions, a PayMaya account holder just needs to go to the Settings section of the app and click on the QR code icon to reveal their unique QR Ph-compliant code. The sender can then scan this code via their participating bank’s mobile app to initiate the fund transfer,” PayMaya said.

QR Ph is available for person-to-person (P2P) fund transfers upon launch but will soon be expanded for merchant QR payments.

BSP Financial Technology Sub-Sector managing director Vicente de Villa earlier said the use of QR codes for peer-to-peer transactions would minimize, if not eliminate, errors in the input of account details.

PayMaya founder and CEO Orlando Vea said the launch of QR Ph is another milestone initiative that would help accelerate the adoption of digital payments across the country.

“We congratulate the BSP for spearheading the launch of the national QR code standard, QR Ph, as we reaffirm our commitment at PayMaya to fully support all efforts for wider cashless adoption and financial inclusion for all Filipinos,” Vea said.

QR Ph was launched earlier this week and is targeted for full implementation by June 2020.

The initiative is seen to lure more Filipinos as well as micro and small enterprises into the formal financial system as they are now able to easily do inter-operable electronic fund transfers and digital payments for their day-to-day transactions using their mobile phones.

The adoption of QR Ph is a collaboration between the BSP and the Philippines Payments Management Inc. (PPMI), the country’s payment system management body under the National Retail Payment System regulatory framework. PayMaya is a member of the PPMI.

Aside from integrating QR Ph on its app, PayMaya has also been working with government agencies including the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Social Security System, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Science and Technology, the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, the Professional Regulation Commission, and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., as well as Valenzuela City, Quezon City and Manila City, among others, to integrate card and emerging digital payments acceptance within their respective online and branch office services.

“As we work with the government and the rest of the industry to push for QR Ph and enabling card and emerging digital payments acceptance for government agencies, more Filipinos will embrace the convenience, added value and security of going cashless,” Vea added.