Russian govt backs draft law on introducing universal payment QR code
MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - The Russian government, the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry generally support the draft law on introducing a universal payment QR code, which would have the National Payment Card System (NPCS, operator of the Mir card) as its sole operator, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said during a speech at the State Duma.
"Our position is indeed that we need a universal QR [code]. It should be based on a single standard and developed by national infrastructure. What does this achieve, and why a single one? Because it avoids confusing citizens, and it's harder to manipulate their choice of payment method. And why should it really be unified? In addition to lower costs from not having to support various schemes with different QR codes, it allows both large and smaller players in the payment market to compete on equal terms, so we support it," Nabiullina said.
"We discussed this at length with the government, the Finance Ministry and the Economy Ministry. I hope the ministers will confirm that they generally support it. And, as I understand it, a positive review of the bill from the government should be issued soon," she said.
Support for the Central Bank's position from the government was confirmed by Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market. "Yes, we received a positive opinion from the government on the introduction of a single QR code," Aksakov said.
The draft law on the introduction of a universal QR code was submitted to the State Duma in late November last year (no. 774598-8), then withdrawn and resubmitted with revisions a month later (no. 811008-8). In particular, the document introduces a requirement for banks and branches of foreign banks to provide clients with transfer details or a link to them only via the universal payment QR code. This means all operations using a payment code will have to be conducted solely via the universal QR code, generated exclusively by its operator, the National Payment Card System (owned by the Central Bank). The changes also concern setting legal deadlines for when banks and merchants must begin working with digital rubles.
In addition to the NPCS's QR code, another widely used solution is the QR code based on Sberbank's system, which has been joined by other major acquiring market players - Tinkoff Bank and Alfa Bank. The consortium of banks proposes regulating the use of universal payment QR codes through standards rather than legislative limits on the number of operators. In late January, the group also said it was discussing mutual platform integration with the regulator. In their view, a certain type of roaming is possible in the market, where one network provides connectivity between an operator and another operator's client. In late February, Nabiullina said that the regulator had studied the consortium's proposal for such roaming between multiple operators but was leaning towards establishing the NPCS's universal QR code as the sole solution on the market.
