ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 24. Kazakhstan will introduce a single QR code for payments in all banks, Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Timur Suleymenov said at a briefing, Trend reports.
According to him, this measure is mandatory.
"We want such a system to work, and we will definitely put it into effect. But for now, we assume that this should be under the influence of market mechanisms. That is, banks themselves should see the advantages of introducing a single QR code," he said.
As Timur Suleymenov noted, a single QR code for all banks is planned to be introduced before the end of the year.
"I hope all banks will join. If not, then we do not rule out regulatory measures, because national payment sovereignty is one of the parts of economic security," he noted.
To note, about 73.7 million transactions worth 980.3 trillion tenge (about $2.18 trillion) were carried out through the Interbank System of Money Transfer (ISMT) and the Interbank Clearing System (ICS) in Kazakhstan from January through December 2023.
Compared to the same period in 2022, the number of payments in these systems increased by 12.5 percent (by 8.2 million transactions).
In addition, the amount of payments increased by 24.5 percent (by 193 trillion tenge, or about $430 billion).