More banks leveraging QR code

MANILA, Philippines — The local arm of Dutch financial giant ING and Rebisco-led Asia United Bank (AUB) continue to leverage various technologies such as the QR (quick response) code to hasten the country’s shift to a cash-lite from a cash-heavy economy.

Mohamed Keraine, ING’s head of retail for the Philippines, said the bank has joined the QR Ph – the national quick response code standard – of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Payments Management Inc. as the QR code has gained strong traction across Asia-Pacific.

Keraine said the ease of use has a huge potential to convert more consumers to adopting cashless transactions and enhance financial inclusion in the country.

“We are confident that the convenience of this peer-to-peer channel will be well received by ING customers who are early adopters of digital transactions and constantly looking for banking services that fit their digital lifestyle,” Keraine said.

ING continues to add more customer-centric features that meet customers’ increasingly digital banking behavior since the start of the global pandemic.

Two additional features will be available for its customers on the ING Pay account, which is designed to make everyday payments more convenient and secure.

Through the QR Ph, ING provides an additional channel for customers to transfer and receive funds instantly with no fees. From the ING Pay account, customers can scan or upload QR codes of other banks or e-wallets, or generate QR codes based on their ING Pay account details.

The QR code generated can be saved on the phone for future transactions. With account details securely embedded within the QR code, customers no longer have to worry about keying in the wrong account details when making a fund transfer.

Keraine said ING’s “no-fee” proposition continues to be one of the reasons for customers to advocate for the ING brand. All transfers from ING via PESONet, InstaPay and QR code would remain free from any transaction fee.

Another feature allows ING customers to adjust their debit card daily limit by transaction type.

This means that customers can choose a different daily limit, up to a maximum of P250,000 for point-of-sale payments, online purchases and ATM withdrawals, based on their spending profile and habits.

“Giving the control and flexibility to our customers for their daily transaction needs is one of many customer-centric banking solutions that ING strives to deliver,” Keraine said.

Meanwhile, AUB has enabled its AUB Paymate merchants to accept Mastercard payments using a QR code. This means sellers or merchants using AUB PayMate need not invest in costly point-of-sale or card terminals to accept Mastercard payments from their customers.

Mags Surtida, first vice president and Cards & Acquiring Business Group head at AUB, led the unveiling of the latest feature of the bank’s all-in-one digital payment acceptance product that enables all types of merchants to accept digital payments — whether local or foreign e-wallets, bank payments, and cards — from their customers.

“AUB PayMate merchants have been trained to accept QR payments since we started in 2017 as a e-wallet/QR payments acquirer. We want them to have the same digital payment acceptance journey by providing them a Card QR code to accept Mastercard payments,” Surtida said.

The expanded digital capability also allows merchants, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to do away with costly card terminals.