MAS and IMDA publish Guidelines on Participation in the Singapore Quick Response Code Scheme and issue response to feedback received from consultation on proposals to strengthen participation in SGQR

28 July 2023

On 23 June 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) and the Info-communications Media Development Authority (“IMDA”) published the Guidelines on Participation in the Singapore Quick Response Code Scheme (“Guidelines”) on the relevant webpage of the MAS website www.mas.gov.sg.

Guidelines on Participation in the Singapore Quick Response Code Scheme

The Guidelines set out the expectations of MAS on the Relevant Merchant Acquirers (defined in the Guidelines as “any major payment institution or any exempt payment service provider that provides the Relevant Merchant Acquisition Service to any merchant”) through their participation in the Singapore Quick Response Code Scheme (“SGQR”), to enable payment service users and merchants to transact conveniently. Relevant Merchant Acquirers, who are not currently SGQR members, are encouraged to participate in SGQR. “Relevant Merchant Acquisition Service” is defined in the Guidelines to mean “the provision of merchant acquisition service to any merchant through a static quick response (“QR”) code at that merchant’s physical place of business”.

The SGQR sets out the standard for a unified payment QR code, which allows multiple payment schemes to be combined into a single SGQR label.

The Guidelines will take effect on 1 December 2023.

MAS and IMDA response to public consultation

The publication of the Guidelines follows a public consultation which was conducted between 27 September and 28 October 2022 to seek feedback on proposals to strengthen participation in the SGQR. For more on the public consultation, please read our previous article titled “IMDA and MAS seek feedback on proposals to strengthen participation in SGQR”.

On 23 June 2023, MAS and IMDA issued their response to the feedback received from the public consultation. MAS and IMDA have carefully evaluated the feedback and where appropriate, incorporated the relevant suggestions from the feedback received into the Guidelines, along with relevant governance, membership, operating rules, branding, and presentment protocols relating to the SGQR (“Rules”).

Most respondents were supportive of the proposal to introduce a set of guidelines which cover MAS’ expectations on all Relevant Merchant Acquirers through their participation in the SGQR, and to add a new rule in the Rules to require SGQR members to provide the Relevant Merchant Acquisition Service by way of an SGQR label only and not with proprietary static payment QR code labels. Given the broad support received for the proposal, IMDA and MAS have largely retained the version of the guidelines proposed during the public consultation. Further, having regard to respondents’ feedback, IMDA and MAS will permit the use of proprietary static payment QR code labels at merchants’ storefronts, but only where these labels are exclusively linked to merchants’ individual payment accounts (i.e. payment account(s) held by a natural person).

MAS and IMDA also addressed the following two proposals:

• New fee structure model for SGQR members: While most respondents were supportive of the introduction of a fee structure for SGQR members, several respondents expressed concerns regarding the fee amounts and IMDA’s and MAS’ expectation for SGQR members not to pass on the cost to merchants. In response, IMDA and MAS, in consultation with Banking Computer Services Private Limited (BCS), have agreed to lower the fees across all subscription tiers. In the Guidelines, MAS has removed the paragraph which sets out MAS’ expectation that a Relevant Merchant Acquirer should not directly or indirectly pass on any of the cost of maintaining its SGQR membership, including any fees payable to maintain its membership and its SGQR labels, to any user or merchant. However, IMDA and MAS strongly encourage SGQR members to absorb these costs for their merchants as far as practicable.
• Regular batched onboarding exercises for merchant acquirers who wish to join SGQR: Most of the respondents supported the proposal to conduct regular batched onboarding exercises for merchant acquirers who wish to join SGQR. IMDA and MAS will implement the regular batched onboarding exercises for merchant acquirers seeking to join SGQR. The onboarding exercises will be held semi-annually. The first onboarding exercise will begin in March 2024.

For more on IMDA’s and MAS’ responses, please refer to the Response to Feedback Received document on the MAS website.