NACHA Finalizes Guidelines for Use of Quick Response Codes for Consumer Bill Pay

Mobile Payment Systems

Recently, NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association’s Council for Electronic Billing and Payment, released final guidelines to facilitate the use of Quick Response (QR) codes for a variety of consumer bill payment functions, including viewing bills, making payments, enrolling for eBills, and setting up payees in online banking. The guidelines provide voluntary standards for using QR codes in both biller direct and consolidator/aggregator billing and payment models, and provides recommends for (i) QR code size, (ii) data to be included in the QR code, and (iii) layout of the data represented in the QR code. The guidelines are intended to establish a single QR code format that can be printed on a paper bill and scanned by a consumer’s mobile phone using a biller, mobile banking, or generic QR code reader to allow billers and service providers to enable QR encoding in a standardized format, provide certainty for biller and banking clients, and ensure a consistent consumer experience.