The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will initiate strict measures on banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) that are reluctant to replace the common payment platform called KHQR, instead still use their respective digital payment platforms called QR codes, revealed a top NBC official to Khmer Times.
It is unfair that some banks that do not develop KHQR can scan KHQR of other banks with KHQR for digital payment or transfers made, but customers of other banks with KHQR cannot scan the respective QRs of those some banks that do not develop KHQR.
Chea Serey, Director General of Central Banking of NBC, told Khmer Times on the sidelines of a business forum on credit risks, emerging uncertainties and digital disruptions that current customers of 38 banking and financial institutions in Cambodia can make payments through scanning KHQR and making money transfers mutually among these institutions free of charge.
“So, they need to solve this problem. On behalf of the authority, we have been working hard with them to integrate that, but if they do not push for doing that, which leads to the fact that other banks can do it, but some banks cannot it is not fair… We will take existing measures which are many that I cannot mention and will release those measures for them to follow,” said Serey.
In Channy, President and Group Managing Director of Acleda Bank Plc—the first publicly listed commercial bank, said recently that Cambodia has the KHQR as its national or common QR that provides more convenience to banking service and product consumers in making payment and transfers who will just need to use only one QR rather than many.
“Actually, we already have, but the banks still claim that ‘I want mine and the others want theirs. So, they use many even though only one QR can be used by many banks, but the banks still want to claim to put their QRs on the counters [of their merchant partners], I think with an intervention by the central bank, we will have only one QR code for everyone,” said Channy.
The KHQR Code—one QR for all—is the single standard QR Code launched by NBC for banking and financial institutions and payment service providers to serve the customers for other goods and services settlement in Cambodia through the mobile application of individual institutions, while each of them has developed and deployed its individual QR Code for the services or products available at merchants under partnership agreements.
Raymond Sia, Chairman of the Association of Banks in Cambodia (ABC) said that for KHQR Code all banks and microfinance institutions need to reach a collective agreement.
“I think it is something that we need to collectively agree on within all associations. So, there is no immediate date that we have set so far, but objectively, that is the long-term destination. We also need to be mindful that individual financing institutions have also invested quite heavily before this KHQR was actually launched. They have invested quite heavily into their own systems, promotion and marketing,” said Raymond, who is also the CEO of Canadia Bank Plc.
Sok Voeun, chairman of the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA), said recently that banking and institutions have been in preparation to deploy KHQR to all of their merchant partners to provide convenience to financial service consumers, but reaching millions of merchants nationwide cannot be done in a short period of time.
“Actually, their reasons are not acceptable because their systems all can read KHQR. So, what they just need to do is to ask their merchants to print out the QR with KHQR. That’s it. But they have not done that or sometimes their merchants may not understand how to do or participating banks themselves have not instructed them,” Serey said.
“I think it can be said that some banks are tricky because they do not update their merchants so it means other banks cannot scan their QR because they do not have KRQR, but their customers can scan QR of other banks that have KHRQ. This is not right. So, what they said is not reasonable,” she added.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
