Bangladesh Bank issues QR code-based payment guidelines

The Bangladesh Bank has formulated a guideline for QR-based payment systems by introducing the Bangla QR to reduce inefficiency in the procedure.

The central bank on Wednesday published the guideline titled “Guidelines for Bangla QR Code Based Payments.”

Some banks, payment schemes, mobile financial services, payment service providers and payment systems oversight (PSOs) have already prepared their own standards and infrastructures for facilitating closed-loop or proprietary QR code-based payments.

This, however, will increase inefficiency in the overall payment systems, reads the guideline.

"Against this backdrop, Bangladesh Bank, in consultation with the stakeholders, has developed a national QR code standard for retail payment named Bangla QR for open loop interoperable QR code-based payments," it said.

But the guideline did not specify any transaction limits or fees and charges, saying it will be determined according to existing policies of the operators.

"However, processors are encouraged to reshuffle their fee structure in line with the fees of Bangladesh Bank’s network as much as possible," it added.