NFC Forum Targets QR Codes with New Spec
If you thought QR codes had conquered payments in some regions, the NFC Forum wants you to think again.
The organization, which develops standards and advocates for near field communication (NFC) technology, has released what it calls its NFC Money Transfer Candidate Specification, taking direct aim at QR codes.
QR codes are seen by some in the payments industry as key to financial inclusion, enabling merchants to accept electronic payments without needing to invest in expensive infrastructure to get started.
At the same time, payment facilitators are thought to play a key role in bringing the codes to small and micromerchants. Mastercard has said that PFs are well-suited to help distribute QR code solutions to merchants with little or no experience in accepting electronic payments, thanks to local expertise, innovative approaches to problem solving, and an ability to provide merchants with robust support.
The NFC Forum said that its specification would work between all NFC-enabled devices, including readers, smartphones and NFC tags. The spec “provides an open framework which can be easily used by payment service providers to map their already defined data exchange for QR code-based payment solutions with NFC communication,” it said.
To accept payment using the NFC Money Transfer specification, a merchant would need a reader and a relationship with a financial institution, an NFC Forum spokesperson told PaymentFacilitator.
In its announcement, the NFC Forum says that its proposed solution improves the consumer experience over QR codes. It eliminates the need for a customer to select an app on their mobile phone and position a camera or scanner and to conduct a transaction. The spec enables the payment application to be selected automatically, according to a Q&A with Daniel Orsatti, the Group Chair for the NFC Forum’s Reference Applications Framework Working Group.
The Forum also claims that the NFC solution has better security because “the operating distance of NFC makes it more difficult for attackers to record the data exchange for payment transactions compared to QR code-based solutions,” Orsatti said.
“The NFC Money Transfer Candidate Specification uses the intrinsic benefits of NFC technology – convenience, speed, security and usability – to create a better user experience for payments than QR codes,” Paula Hunter, executive director for the NFC Forum, said in the press release.
“With almost two billion NFC-enabled devices in use today, the majority of smartphone users around the world have NFC technology as a standard feature in the palm of their hand.”
The Forum is inviting comment on its specification before it is officially adopted and published.