Implementation of universal payment QR code will require significant expenses from Sberbank - bank's senior vice president
MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - The implementation of a universal payment QR code will require significant expenses from Sberbank , as well as from other credit institutions not connected to the acquiring services of the National Payment Card System (NPCS), and this issue is currently being discussed with the Central Bank of Russia, Sberbank's senior vice president and the head of its transactional banking division, Dmitry Malykh, told Interfax.
The draft law on implementing a universal QR was submitted to the State Duma in December 2024 (N811008-8) and passed its first reading on May 22. The document, in particular, introduces the obligation for banks to provide clients with transfer details exclusively via a universal QR code operated by the NPCS (the operator of the Mir card system and the Fast Payment System, FPS). Even at the stage of discussing the draft law's concept, the provision on centralizing payment methods under the universal QR code via the NPCS raised a number of concerns, including those related to market monopolization.
"Switching to a unified QR will entail costs for banks. The current version of the draft law states that banks will be required to provide this service. For Sberbank, this means we will have to rebuild from scratch the solution we already have in place. These are substantial expenses both for adaptation and for extending the solution to all POS terminals [payment receiving devices]. Such costs will be incurred by all banks that have not implemented NPCS acquiring (FPS QR). This is currently a matter of discussion with the Central Bank," Malykh said.
"We believe that we will reach an agreement with the Central Bank, loyalty programs using familiar methods will be preserved, and individual customers will not be negatively affected by the changes," he said.
The Central Bank previously said that the implementation of a universal QR code would not require significant expenses from the vast majority of banks. "From a cost standpoint, we looked at it: if it's a universal QR, then most banks won't need to make any changes at all, provided they are connected to the FPS. The vast majority of banks are connected to the FPS," Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on the sidelines of the Cybersecurity in Finance forum.
State Duma Financial Market Committee Chairman Anatoly Aksakov, during the first reading of the universal QR draft law, did not rule out that during the revision process for the second reading the issue of compensations to banks that had invested in proprietary solutions before the centralized system was introduced would be considered. He also said that the CBR believes the costs for the QR code itself were not very high, and that the main expenses were related to marketing and promotion of products offered by credit institutions.
PAYMENT ROAMING
In addition to the NPCS QR code, the QR solution developed by Sberbank is currently popular, and it has been joined by other major players in the acquiring market - T-Bank and Alfa Bank. The consortium of banks proposes regulating the operation of universal payment QR codes through standards rather than through legislative limitations on the number of operators. The consortium also said at the end of January that it was discussing reciprocal integration of QR platforms with the regulator. In their view, the market could accommodate a form of roaming, where a network provides connectivity between one QR code operator and another operator's user.
"We will support any payment roaming concept that will help minimize costs for banks and businesses when implementing the new QR code and enable faster and cheaper service delivery to clients," Malykh said.
"At the start of discussions with colleagues, we considered that if payment roaming were introduced, it should be a paid service. Later we abandoned this idea in order to reduce barriers and ensure cross-platform compatibility or interoperability of the solution," he said.
Nabiullina said in February that a roaming system would require significant upgrades for a greater number of banks, so the regulator leans toward implementing only one universal QR under the NPCS.
At the same time, if the correct technological solution for QR is developed, the market will need a certain adaptation period, Malykh said. "This can't happen overnight; a transition period is needed. We need to move toward reasonable agreements with the regulator that will help address its goals as well as the needs of businesses and clients," he said.
