Digital payments using QR codes will be introduced to Myanmar as soon as the framework for such payments are ready.
Shanghai-based financial services company UnionPay International’s (UPI) QR code system accessible through mobile phones would be made available when the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) makes the official announcement.
UPI operates as a subsidiary of China UnionPay, which has the largest credit- and debit-card network in the world allowing payments to be transacted through online and mobile platforms.
CBM’s Daw Than Than Swe from thebank supervision department told the Myanmar Times that payments via QR code “is sure to be launched this year” when a standard for such payments, MMQR, is implemented.
“After this standard is approved, payments can be made through QR codes locally for any business and banks,” she said.
Meanwhile, UPI launched a 20-page guidebook on cashless transactions including with QR codes on June 10 in anticipation of CBM’s approval of this mobile payment system. “The main objective of this guidebook is to educate people here on becoming a cashless society,” UPI’s Southeast Asia assistant general manager Vincent Ling said at the launch.
He noted that mobile payments through QR codes would be available “within months” in the country and that the company has been working on getting CBM’s approval. Ling added that the guidebook provides people more information on cashless transactions and build up trust on how the payment system works.
The guidebook includes the benefits of cashless transactions, functions of credit and prepaid cards, card application process and how to use cards to transact payments.
UPI has been building up its network throughout Southeast Asia, which also includes point-of-sales and ATMs. In Myanmar, the company has been building up its presence with all the major banks for payment products.
Source: Myanmar Times
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