The bank in the Czech Rebpublic is the first to support this type of service and full Windows 8 compatibility.
Komercni Banka (Komerční banka) has announced the launch of QR codes that can be used by customers to make mobile payments, which represents a first within the Eastern European country.
This is also the first time that this type of service has full compatibility with Windows 8 mobile devices.
A number of the QR codes have been launched by the bank in order to provide customers with new options for direct banking. The mobile payments that use the scans of the barcodes allow smartphone users to simply snap the image of the code to prompt a payment confirmation screen. Once this is completed by the user, the entire transaction is complete within a matter of seconds.
The bank is the first one in the Czech marketplace to use QR codes to support this type of service.
The Czech Banking Association has standardized the form of the QR codes so that they can be securely used by smartphone owners.
According to the head of direct banking, Mojmír Prokop, at Komercni Banka, explained that “Introducing QR code support in banking is hot news. Their massive use will mainly depend on how quickly invoice issuers will start placing them on their payment documents. Talks with major e-shops, telecoms, and other service providers, are therefore under way already now.”
There are already a few shops, such as smarty.cz, which have made it possible for smartphone users to make their mobile payments using QR codes.
An additional significant innovation in this area connected to Mobilini Banka 2, which is a free service to customers, is that they can now use their smartphones to send payments to any other smartphone that the customer wishes. At the moment, this is possible only among smartphone users that have signed up for the program and who are customers of the bank, but this is expected to grow over time.
Customers can sign up to use the service through QR codes by heading to their bank branch or by using the official bank website.
