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Payments/TL/tuqr

TuQR

TuQR ("Timor Unified Quick Response") is Timor-Leste's national QR code for payments. The central bank, BCTL, launched it on 12 September 2026 with Ti-FAST, its 24/7 instant payment system. A shop shows one TuQR code, and you scan it with any participating banking or e-wallet app, whichever provider you use. At launch that meant BNCTL, Banku Kaebauk, Telemor Fintech (Mosan) and Lojami, with other banks to follow. The most useful fact: since 12 September 2026, TuQR payments are free for customers and merchants, by order of BCTL.
Country Timor-Leste (TL)
What it is The national QR payment standard, owned by Banco Central de Timor-Leste (BCTL); payments settle over Ti-FAST
Banks and providers BNCTL, Banku Kaebauk, Telemor Fintech (Mosan), Lojami at launch; Bank Mandiri, BRI, BNU, Ti-One and BNF announced to follow
Since 12 Sep 2026
Cost Free for customers and merchants from 12 Sep 2026, "until further determination by the BCTL"
Typical limit Whatever your account, wallet or card allows; TuQR sets no limit of its own
Reaches Domestic only; links with Indonesia (QRIS), Cambodia and other ASEAN countries planned, none live
Code on paper? Yes: the merchant's printed or on-screen TuQR. The data format is in a BCTL Technical Manual that is not public

How TuQR came to Timor-Leste

  • 7 November 2025. Governor Hélder Lopes said BCTL would bring in a national QR code in 2026, "Timor Unique QR" (TUQR), as the base for linking with the ASEAN QR network so that "we can use theirs and they can use ours" [9].
  • 8–11 May 2026. The Governor set the launch for August 2026, with rules under discussion with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (MKAE) and the Ministry of Finance. Those rules would make businesses let customers choose between cash and digital payment. The rollout would be phased, because digital literacy is low and internet access is limited in the mountains, with tourism, hotels and restaurants first [7] [6].
  • 9 September 2026. BCTL's Board approved Instruction 34/2026, which makes TuQR the mandatory national standard for QR payments [2].
  • 10 September 2026. The Governor said the launch had moved from August to 12 September because the laws and regulations were still being prepared [8]. The same day he said Kaebauk, until then a microfinance institution, now held a bank licence; it had 22,561 clients in February 2026, including in Oecusse and Atauro [19].
  • 12 September 2026. President José Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão launched Ti-FAST and TuQR at Timor Plaza, Dili, during BCTL's 15th-anniversary celebrations [5] [4]. Four institutions were integrated on day one [1].
  • 22 September 2026. Circular Letter 17/2026 made TuQR free for customers and merchants, backdated to the launch [3].

At the launch the Governor gave dates for the institutions still integrating [4]. What their app listings showed on 19 October 2026:

Institution Announced on 12 Sep 2026 Seen on 19 Oct 2026
BNCTL Live at launch App lists "QR Payments (TUQR)", "Pay by Phone" and "Request to Pay"; version 1.1.4 of 6 Oct 2026 [11]
Banku Kaebauk, Mosan (Telemor Fintech), Lojami Live at launch [1] Not checked: no app page or product page for TuQR found
BNU, Ti-One "Next week" BNU's app notes don't mention TuQR; its last update was 9 Sep 2026 [12]
Bank Mandiri October 2026 Livin' by Mandiri's last iPhone update was 26 Nov 2025 [13]
BRI November 2026 —
Banco do Nosso Futuro (BNF) 2027 —

BCTL has not published TuQR user or transaction figures. Participants must report transaction, user and merchant statistics to BCTL [2], so figures may appear later.

Naming. BCTL's launch release says "Timor Unified Quick Response" [1] and its fee circular "Timor Unified QR" [3]. The news agency TATOLI writes "Timor Unique QR" [6] [10]. They mean the same thing.

How to use it

  1. Get a participating app. Use the mobile banking or e-wallet app of a TuQR participant [1]. For BNCTL, you register for mobile banking at a branch with your account number and e-mail address, and the bank sends you a user name and password [11].
  2. Scan the shop's TuQR in the app's QR payment menu ("QR Payments (TUQR)" in the BNCTL app) [11].
  3. Check before you confirm. The app must show you the beneficiary's name, the amount and currency, and any fees before you authorise. With a static code (the same printed code for every sale) you type the amount yourself. A dynamic code is made for one sale, carries the amount, and can expire [2].
  4. Get the confirmation. You and the merchant each get an electronic confirmation with the status, amount, date and time, beneficiary and a unique reference [2]. BCTL sums it up as "scan, pay and receive confirmation" [1].

Any certified participant's customer must be able to pay any TuQR; participants may not lock a code to their own app [2]. The Instruction sets no age, residency or phone rules of its own: who can open an account or wallet is up to each provider. If a payment fails half-way, participants must reverse or settle pending and duplicate payments automatically where they can, and refunds go back to the account they came from [2].

Limits and fees

  • Fees: none, for now. Circular Letter 17/2026 bars participants, from 12 September 2026, from charging individuals any fee for making or receiving TuQR payments and from charging merchants any fee for accepting them. Existing fees are suspended, bundled or renamed charges are not allowed, and costs between institutions may not be passed on. The waiver lasts "until further determination by the BCTL" [3].
  • No surcharge. A merchant may not charge you extra for paying by TuQR unless BCTL allows it [2].
  • Limits. TuQR payments use the limits of the account, wallet or card behind them [2]. No participant's TuQR limits were found published.

Limits change; check your bank's current terms.

Paying shops and businesses

TuQR is built for paying shops: the merchant shows one code instead of a separate code for each provider [1]. At the launch the Prime Minister described paying US$0.75 by phone so the seller need not find change [4].

  • Where it works (October 2026). On 13 October 2026 TATOLI reported that big supermarkets such as Centro, Meymart, Timor Plaza and W Four, and some cosmetics shops, already took digital payments such as TUQR, UnionPay and T-Pay. Most small shops and Chinese-run shops did not yet, saying their customers still paid cash [10].
  • Government push. The same report says the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MKI) had sent shops a circular on digital payments, and the minister said shops must give customers the choice of cash or digital payment [10].
  • What a merchant must do. Use only a code issued or approved by its acquiring provider, check regularly that it hasn't been covered or swapped, remove any suspect code, confirm each payment in its own app or channel, and never treat a photo or screenshot as proof of payment [2].

Merchant sign-up runs through each participant; no participant's merchant page for TuQR was found.

Paying across borders

TuQR is domestic for now. BCTL plans QR and instant-payment links with "some ASEAN countries and other countries", subject to agreements and approvals [1], and each cross-border use needs BCTL's specific approval [2].

  • Cambodia. On launch day BCTL and the National Bank of Cambodia signed a memorandum on digital payments and cross-border connectivity, including interoperability between "designated payment systems" [14]. It doesn't name a QR scheme.
  • Indonesia. On 25 September 2026 BCTL and Bank Indonesia signed a memorandum in Jakarta that includes assessing a link to QRIS Cross-Border. TATOLI notes that making it work still depends on technical, regulatory and operational arrangements [15]. Before the launch the Governor said the aim was for TuQR to work in Indonesia and Indonesia's QRIS to work in Timor-Leste [8].
  • The Pacific. On 9 October 2026 the Governor cited TUQR to the South Pacific central bank governors in Dili and named Fiji as a possible partner, noting that remittances are over 10 % of Timor-Leste's GDP [16].

As of October 2026 no source shows a TuQR payment to or from another country.

How the TuQR code works

TuQR is a code-first scheme: the code is the payment request, and Ti-FAST moves the money. Instruction 34/2026 calls TuQR an arrangement for starting and accepting payments, not a payment system itself; payments go through Ti-FAST or another system BCTL authorises [2]. Ti-FAST runs 24/7 on ISO 20022 [1].

What's inside the code isn't public. The Instruction leaves the data structure, fields, static and dynamic rules and validation to a TuQR Technical Manual that BCTL "publishes or communicates to participants" [2]. No manual was found on bancocentral.tl, and the Instruction doesn't say whether TuQR follows the EMVCo merchant-presented layout used by Indonesia's QRIS and other ASEAN codes. So Barcoder cannot generate or decode a TuQR yet; the TuQR standard page tracks what is known.

Other codes on a Dili counter. Providers that already run their own QR, such as TPAY and Livin' QR, must give BCTL a migration plan. From a date BCTL sets, new non-TuQR payment codes are banned, and old ones must be replaced or withdrawn within 30 days unless BCTL sets another deadline [2]. No such date had been published by 19 October 2026, so for now a shop may show a TuQR, a TPAY code, or another provider's code, and only the TuQR is open to every participant's app. The TuQR name and logo belong to BCTL, and no provider may present a non-TuQR code as the national standard [2].

Safety: the swapped code and the fake screenshot

No TuQR scam warning was found: BCTL's public-advisories page said "There are no public advisories in effect right now" when read [18]. The Instruction itself names the frauds participants must work to prevent: replaced QR codes, fake merchants, social engineering and account takeover [2]. At the launch the Prime Minister and the President both asked BCTL and the banks to strengthen protection; the Prime Minister cited people from Europe emptying Timorese accounts at ATMs [17].

  • Read the name before you pay. Your app must show the beneficiary's name. If it isn't the shop you are standing in, a sticker may have been put over the real code; don't pay.
  • Sellers: a screenshot is not money. Under the Instruction a photo or screenshot of a payment is not valid proof. Check that the payment arrived in your own app [2].
  • Disputed a payment? Your provider must prove the payment was authenticated and processed correctly; a log of your PIN being used is not, by itself, proof that you authorised it [2].

TuQR and the alternatives in Timor-Leste

Way to pay Best for Notes
TuQR Shops that show the national code Free until BCTL decides otherwise; any participating app [3]
TPAY TPAY merchants, phone credit, electricity tokens Telkomcel's wallet, with its own QR; must migrate to TuQR [2]
Livin' QR Bank Mandiri Dili customers paying each other Bank-account QR; must migrate to TuQR [2]
UnionPay card Hotels, restaurants, shops, ATMs Issued by BNCTL since Sep 2024 (TL report)
Cash (US$) Markets and small shops Still the norm in most small shops in October 2026 [10]

Sources

  1. Banco Central de Timor-Leste, "BCTL Officially Launches Ti-FAST and TuQR to Advance Digital Payments in Timor-Leste", 12 Sep 2026. https://www.bancocentral.tl/news/public/detail/4e732ced3463d06de0ca9a15b6153677/
  2. Banco Central de Timor-Leste, "Instrução do BCTL N.º 34/2026 sobre o padrão nacional “TuQR” para pagamentos baseados em código de resposta rápida", approved 9 Sep 2026. https://www.bancocentral.tl/media/laws/253/253_en.pdf
  3. Banco Central de Timor-Leste, "Circular Letter 17/2026: Temporary Waiver of Fees and Charges Applicable to TuQR Transactions", 22 Sep 2026 (scanned PDF, read by OCR). https://www.bancocentral.tl/media/laws/252/252_en.pdf
  4. TATOLI, "PM Xanana lansa TI-FAST no TuQR hodi moderniza sistema pagamentu dijitál", 12 Sep 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/09/12/pm-xanana-lansa-ti-fast-no-tuqr-hodi-moderniza-sistema-pagamentu-dijital/
  5. TATOLI, "Timor-Leste launches digital payment system named “TUQR”", 12 Sep 2026. https://en.tatoli.tl/2026/09/12/timor-leste-launches-digital-payment-system-named-tuqr/14/
  6. TATOLI, "Timor-Leste to launch national QR payment system “TUQR”", 11 May 2026. https://en.tatoli.tl/2026/05/11/timor-leste-to-launch-national-qr-payment-system-tuqr/15/
  7. TATOLI, "BCTL lansa kódigu TUQR nasionál ba pagamentu dijitál iha Agostu", 8 May 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/05/08/bctl-lansa-kodigu-tuqr-nasional-ba-pagamentu-dijital-iha-agostu/
  8. TATOLI, "Kódigu TUQR Nasionál ba pagamentu dijitál lansa iha 12 Setembru", 10 Sep 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/09/10/kodigu-tuqr-nasional-ba-pagamentu-dijital-lansa-iha-12-setembru/
  9. TATOLI, "BCTL sei lansa kódigu QR nasionál ba pagamentu dijitál iha tinan 2026", 7 Nov 2025. https://tatoli.tl/2025/11/07/bctl-sei-lansa-kodigu-qr-nasional-ba-pagamentu-dijital-iha-tinan-2026/
  10. TATOLI, "MKI koordena ho loja sira atu implementa pagamentu dijitál", 13 Oct 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/10/13/mki-koordena-ho-loja-sira-atu-implementa-pagamentu-dijital/
  11. App Store, "BNCTL Mobile Banking" (description and version history), read 19 Oct 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bnctl-mobile-banking/id6468956310
  12. App Store, "BNU App" (version history), read 19 Oct 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bnu/id1421041116
  13. App Store, "Livin' by Mandiri Timor-Leste" (version history), read 19 Oct 2026. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/livin-by-mandiri-timor-leste/id6737297093
  14. Banco Central de Timor-Leste, "BCTL and National Bank of Cambodia Sign MoU to Strengthen Cooperation on Digital Payments and Cross-Border Payment Connectivity", 12 Sep 2026. https://www.bancocentral.tl/news/public/detail/02e74f10e0327ad868d138f2b4fdd6f0/
  15. TATOLI, "BCTL and Bank Indonesia strengthen cooperation to develop cross-border digital payments", 26 Sep 2026. https://en.tatoli.tl/2026/09/26/bctl-and-bank-indonesia-strengthen-cooperation-to-develop-cross-border-digital-payments/20/
  16. TATOLI, "Banku Sentrál Timor-Leste promove integrasaun sistema pagamentu dijitál transfronteirisu iha pasífiku", 9 Oct 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/10/09/banku-sentral-timor-leste-promove-integrasaun-sistema-pagamentu-dijital-transfronteirisu-iha-pasifiku/
  17. TATOLI, "Xanana no Ramos-Horta solisita BCTL reforsa seguransa sistema pagamentu dijitál", 12 Sep 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/09/12/xanana-no-ramos-horta-solisita-bctl-reforsa-seguransa-sistema-pagamentu-dijital/
  18. Banco Central de Timor-Leste, "Public Advisories", read 19 Oct 2026. https://www.bancocentral.tl/news/public-advisories/
  19. TATOLI, "Kaebauk hetan ona lisensa BCTL atu sai banku komersiál", 10 Sep 2026. https://tatoli.tl/2026/09/10/kaebauk-hetan-ona-lisensa-bctl-atu-sai-banku-komersial/

Researched 19 October 2026. Limits and bank offerings change; the banks' own pages are authoritative.

source · content/payments/TL/tuqr/index.md