QR codes to be used for mobile payments of everyday bills

The Electronic Payments Association has taken the next step in electronic funds movement.

The Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBP), has just announced some proposed changes to the way that the American electronic money movement network will be functioning in the future, through the use of QR codes.

This latest alteration proposes that QR codes be included as a bill payment option.

It is CEBP that is behind the governance, administration, and further development of this funds transfer and exchange network, and it has just released a new document that includes the use of QR codes in its allowable practices.

This published document was called “Quick Response (QR) Encoding for Consumer Bill Pay Guidelines.”

The purpose of the report was to offer a proposal for a standard in the use of these increasingly popular QR codes as both a direct bill provider, as well as to offer consolidated and aggregate billing and mobile payment models. The report is highly detailed and offers a number of draft recommendations regarding points such as the size of the barcodes, as well as the types of data that can be contained within the URL to which the quick response code will direct.

These recommendations also include a proposed layout of the type of data that will be represented within the QR codes. The goal of the report is to provide a form of guideline that will allow a single format for the barcodes to be used to communicate with consumers at the time that they are ready to view their bills and then pay them.

The organization has made the proposal document and related information available online both to companies who would be involved in this type of mobile payments and billing process, but also to anyone – including consumers – who is interested in learning more about what is being proposed.

According to the CEBP “These Guidelines are intended to facilitate quicker market adoption of a single QR code format that can reach consumers wherever they view and pay bills – at the biller’s website, a financial institution, or other aggregation bill payment sites.” They await comment and feedback from bill payment industry stakeholders before they will take further steps.