Following the publication of the document on Standardisation and governance of QR1-codes for Instant Payments at the Point of Interaction (IPs at the POI, EPC212-21v1.0), the multi-stakeholder group on mobile initiated SEPA (instant) credit transfers (MSG MSCT) has prepared a new document on the Standardisation of QR-codes for MSCTs.
The document standardises a payee and a payer-presented QR-code for all types of MSCTs, i.e. all payment contexts: person-to-person (P2P), consumer-to-business (C2B) and business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C), while addressing both SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and SCT payments. The MSG MSCT leveraged for this work the document on “Standardisation and governance of QR-codes for IPs at the POI” (EPC212-21), they developed in 2021, hereby addressing the request made by the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) to the European Payments Council (EPC) in their Statement of June 2021 (ERPB/2021/012). In addition, the present document contains a chapter devoted to the security aspects of the data contained in the QR-codes.
The new document also takes into account the answers received from the European Banking Authority (EBA) on the EBA Q&A 2020_5476 and 2020_5477.
Note that this new document also addresses Recommendation A included in the ERPB Statement published in November 2021 (ERPB/2021/028).
In order to help developing a successful MSCT ecosystem that provides value for all, it was very important to gather industry opinion and market feedback regarding this QR-code standard for MSCTs. Therefore an eight-week public consultation was launched earlier this year that closed on 14 April 2022. The MSG MSCT has processed the comments received through this public consultation and prepared the final version of this document for publication. The aim is also to develop a generic version of the document on the Standardisation of QR-codes for (instant) credit transfers for submission through a so-called “fast track procedure” to an International Standardisation Body.
The MSG MSCT prepared during the past months an updated version of the document in view of the impact of the recently received EBA answer on EBA Q&A 2021_6298 - Clarification on the EBA answer to EBA Q&A 2020_5476, posted by the MSG MSCT in November 2021. In view of the answer received, the MSG MSCT concluded that the additional options for a payer-presented QR-code, described in Annex 2 of the original document, cannot be used. Therefore the MSG MSCT decided to adapt the text wherever appropriate in the body of the document and to delete the Annex 2. The document was further updated in view of the submission of the derived document on Specification of QR-codes for mobile (instant) credit transfers (EPC193-22v1.0) to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
1 Quick-Response