GCash launches new money transfer feature

MANILA, Philippines — Mobile wallet GCash has launched a new money transfer feature that provides better security and convenience to users.

Called QR on Demand, the new feature in the GCash app lets users send and receive money using their own personal QR.

QR on Demand’s Send via QR allows users to scan or upload another customer’s QR code, assuring them that they are sending money to the correct person.

GCash said this eliminates the process of having to enter a mobile number manually, making the process of sending money faster, and avoids money incorrectly sent to wrong numbers.

Receive via QR, on the other hand, enables customers to generate their own personal QR code that can be scanned by other users or uploaded to the app to send money to.

GCash said this is more secure since it does not divulge a customer’s number publicly, and does not expire so other users can use the same QR code to send money multiple times.

Fully verified GCash users can also assign a peso value to the code itself so that a certain amount will be auto-generated every time the code is scanned, assuring customers of exact payments for every transaction.

“GCash continues to innovate for better means of transferring money and better customer experience, while at the same time keeping Filipinos safer and more secure in this highly digital world,” GCash president and CEO Martha Sazon said.

“Aside from money transfers, the new QR on Demand feature can also be used by enterprising citizens in conducting informal businesses,” she said.

Last year, GCash enabled over half a million social sellers to continue doing business transactions online using the mobile wallet.

In 2017, the GCash QR feature was launched to allow users to scan a merchant’s QR code and pay cashless.

It worked by using the user’s smartphone camera to scan a GCash partner merchant’s QR code, and was deployed in major areas such as malls, and to even smaller vendor partners.

GCash said learnings from this previous feature are translated and combined with its Send Money service, ensuring for a fast and seamless customer experience.

“GCash is constantly pushing for the adoption of cashless payments as it supports the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Digital Transformation Roadmap, where the agency aims to shift at least 50 percent of retail payment transactions to digital, and to have at least 70 percent of Filipinos have their own e-wallet by 2023,” it said.