# QR Ph

> Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qr-ph
> research date 2026-05-29 · extracted at 2026-10-07
> Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards

Specifications:
- [QR Ph P2M FAQs — BSP](https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Media_and_Research/Primers%20Faqs/QR_Ph_P2M_FAQs.pdf)
- [QR Ph P2P FAQs — BSP](https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Media_and_Research/Primers%20Faqs/QR_Ph_P2P_FAQs.pdf)
- [EMV QR Code Specifications — EMVCo](https://www.emvco.com/emv-technologies/qr-codes/)

## Overview

**QR Ph** is the **Philippines' national unified QR code payment standard**, established by **Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) under BSP Circular 1055 in October 2019** and governed by **Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI)** <sup>[1][1], [2][2], [Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>. It is **EMVCo Merchant-Presented Mode (MPM) compliant** and runs on the **InstaPay** real-time retail payment network <sup>[3][3], [Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>. The first product, **QR Ph P2P**, launched in November 2019 for person-to-person transfers; the **QR Ph P2M** (person-to-merchant) variant followed and is now the primary product <sup>[1][1], [2][2]</sup>.

QR Ph's distinctive achievement is making **all participating institutions interoperable across one QR code** — a customer using **GCash, Maya, BDO, BPI, UnionBank**, or any other participating bank or e-wallet can pay any QR Ph-enabled merchant via a single code <sup>[4][4], [Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>. As of Jan–Nov 2025, the underlying InstaPay + PESONet rails processed **PHP 22.054 trillion across 4.065 billion transactions (+41.15 % YoY value, +203.6 % YoY volume)** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>.

## History

**Background** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [5][5]</sup>: The Philippine payments landscape before QR Ph was deeply fragmented — each bank and e-wallet (GCash, PayMaya, etc.) had its own QR code, creating consumer confusion and merchant clutter. The BSP's **National Retail Payment System (NRPS) Framework** identified QR-code-payment standardisation as a priority alongside the InstaPay (real-time) and PESONet (batch) rails launched in 2017–2018.

**4 November 2019 — National standard endorsement**: PPMI approved EMV® QR Code as the National Standard for payment and financial services, recorded in **BSP Circular Letter No. 2019-080** <sup>[2][2]</sup>.

**October 2019 — BSP Circular 1055**: Formal establishment of the QR Ph standard, BSP-issued <sup>[2][2], [3][3]</sup>.

**November 2019 — QR Ph P2P launch** <sup>[2][2]</sup>: First QR Ph product — peer-to-peer / person-to-person transfers via QR — launched to enable digital fund transfers between individual end users via InstaPay's real-time rail.

**Subsequent evolution** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>:
- **2020–2022** — QR Ph P2M (person-to-merchant) variants developed; major banks and e-wallets onboard.
- **GCash and Maya** (e-wallets) integrate QR Ph, alongside banks (BDO, BPI, UnionBank, Landbank, etc.) — broad consumer-facing coverage.
- **2023** — InstaPay-PayNow (Singapore) cross-border linkage operationalises.
- **2024** — **Project Nexus** (BIS multilateral cross-border instant-payment initiative) — Philippines is a **founding member** alongside Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and India <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>.
- **2025** — Continued QR Ph adoption growth; BSP targets **60–70 % digital retail payment share by 2028** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>.

**Adoption growth metrics** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>:
- 2023 — 52.8 % digital retail payments
- 2024 — **57.4 %** (exceeded BSP's 50 % digital target ahead of 2023 deadline)
- Jan–Nov 2025 — **PHP 22.054 trillion** combined InstaPay + PESONet transaction value (+41.15 % YoY)

## Technical specification

QR Ph is **EMVCo Merchant-Presented Mode (MPM) compliant** with Philippine-specific extensions <sup>[3][3], [Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>:

| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| **Underlying rail** | **InstaPay** (real-time retail) for P2P + P2M; PESONet for batch / B2B |
| **Settlement** | Real-time via InstaPay (sub-10-seconds) |
| **Standard body** | PPMI (Philippine Payments Management, Inc.) under BSP supervision |
| **QR format** | EMVCo MPM TLV |

**EMVCo MPM foundation** <sup>[5][5]</sup>:
- Payload format: **TLV (Tag-Length-Value)** plain-text string
- Integrity: CRC-16/CCITT-FALSE appended as field `63`
- Underlying symbology: [QR Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qr-code) (ISO/IEC 18004)
- Currency code: 608 (PHP)

**Two QR Ph variants** <sup>[1][1], [2][2], [4][4]</sup>:

| Variant | Description |
|---|---|
| **QR Ph P2P** | Person-to-person transfers; original Nov 2019 launch product; uses the InstaPay logo on the QR design |
| **QR Ph P2M** | Person-to-merchant payments; the primary current product; uses the **red-blue-yellow QR Ph logo** (Philippine flag colours) |

Both are interoperable across all participating institutions — banks AND e-wallets <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>.

**Transaction limits** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>:

| System | Limit |
|---|---|
| **InstaPay (QR Ph foundation)** | **PHP 50,000 per transaction** |
| **PESONet (batch / higher-value)** | **PHP 250,000+** (bank-dependent) |

**Settlement** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>:
- **InstaPay** — real-time, 24/7/365, sub-10-second processing.
- **PESONet** — batch-processed, same-day or next-business-day, higher limits, B2B and payroll focus.
- QR Ph payments route through **InstaPay** for instant settlement; PESONet is a parallel rail for non-QR-Ph use cases.

## Use cases

QR Ph is the **unified merchant-side QR for the Philippines**, enabling cross-network payment from any participating consumer app <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>:

- **Retail point of sale** — small merchants (sari-sari stores, market vendors), restaurants, shopping malls, chain retail. Single QR Ph sticker accepts payments from GCash, Maya, BDO Pay, BPI Mobile, UnionBank, and other participating apps.
- **Bills payments via biller QR** — utilities, telecom (Globe, Smart, etc.), insurance, school fees, government services.
- **E-commerce checkout** — dynamic QR Ph at online checkout.
- **P2P transfers** — QR Ph P2P variant; send by scanning recipient's personal QR.
- **Government disbursements** — social-benefit programmes, tax refunds via InstaPay rails with QR Ph as one consumer-facing channel.
- **Cross-border tourism** — InstaPay-PayNow (Singapore) linkage enables Filipino tourists in Singapore (and Singaporean tourists in Philippines) to pay via QR with home banking app routing through the bilateral bridge.
- **Project Nexus future state** — multilateral cross-border interoperability with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India as the project goes live (BIS-overseen).

**Major consumer apps consuming QR Ph** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>:

| App | Provider | Users |
|---|---|---|
| **GCash** | Globe (Mynt) | **60M+ users — dominant** |
| **Maya** (formerly PayMaya) | Voyager Innovations | Large; second-largest e-wallet |
| **BDO Pay** | BDO Unibank | Major bank-app user base |
| **BPI Mobile** | BPI | Major bank-app user base |
| **UnionBank** | UnionBank | Major bank-app user base |
| **Landbank iAccess** | Landbank | State bank |

**Adoption scale (Jan–Nov 2025)** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>:

| Metric | Value | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| **InstaPay value** | PHP 10.209 T | +56.18 % |
| **PESONet value** | PHP 11.845 T | +27.66 % |
| **Combined value** | PHP 22.054 T | +41.15 % |
| **Combined volume** | **4.065 B transactions** | **+203.6 %** |

## Implementations

QR Ph integration is **PPMI / BSP-mediated**; no significant open-source library ecosystem at the protocol level <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>.

**Production apps consuming QR Ph** — see Use cases above.

**Merchant / acquirer integrations**:
- **HitPay** — QR Ph payment-gateway and acquirer for SMEs <sup>[6][6]</sup>; provides Scan-to-Pay terminal experience.
- **Maya for Business** — merchant onboarding via Maya's acquirer platform <sup>[6][6]</sup>.
- **GCash for Business** — merchant onboarding via GCash.
- **Major bank acquirers** (BDO, BPI, UnionBank, etc.) all offer QR Ph merchant onboarding.
- **International PSPs** (Stripe, Adyen, etc.) increasingly offer QR Ph as a Philippine-market payment method.

**General EMVCo MPM libraries** can read QR Ph payloads (since QR Ph is EMVCo MPM with Philippine merchant-account-information templates) — same library compatibility pattern as [SGQR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/sgqr), [DuitNow QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/duitnow-qr), [PromptPay QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/promptpay-qr), [QRIS](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qris), [VietQR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/vietqr).

**BancNet** publishes the **InstaPay QR Participants** list, identifying which institutions are live with QR Ph as of any given month <sup>[7][7]</sup>.

## Comparison

**vs. ASEAN EMVCo MPM family ([SGQR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/sgqr), [DuitNow QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/duitnow-qr), [PromptPay QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/promptpay-qr), [QRIS](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/qris), [VietQR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/vietqr))** — Same technical family; all EMVCo MPM TLV; all central-bank-affiliated operators; all launched within the same 2018–2021 window. QR Ph's distinctive feature is its **dual P2P / P2M variant design**: the original 2019 launch was P2P; P2M followed. The two variants share the EMVCo TLV format but use different logos. Most ASEAN peers launched with merchant-presented QR as the primary product; QR Ph started with peer-to-peer transfers as the launch use case. **Project Nexus** (BIS multilateral cross-border initiative) includes QR Ph as a member <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [Singapore report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SG), [Malaysia report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/MY)</sup>.

**vs. [UPI QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/upi-qr) (India)** — Different wire format (UPI deep link vs QR Ph EMVCo TLV). Both are central-bank-orchestrated national unified payment standards with broad consumer-app participation (GCash + Maya for QR Ph; PhonePe + Google Pay + Paytm for UPI). UPI scale is vastly larger by transaction volume, but QR Ph's interoperability principle and merchant adoption velocity are comparable in Philippine context <sup>[India report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/IN)</sup>.

**vs. [Pix](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/pix) (Brazil)** — Both are central-bank-driven national unified payment standards; both have aggressive growth trajectories. Pix is bank-rail-only with mandatory bank participation; QR Ph is interoperable across both banks **and** e-wallets (e-wallets are the dominant consumer-app category in Philippines via GCash and Maya). Different ecosystem composition; similar regulatory ambition [Pix](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/pix).

**vs. [M-Pesa KE](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/m-pesa-ke) / [KE-QR Code](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/ke-qr-code) (Kenya)** — Both Philippines and Kenya have dominant non-bank consumer payment apps (GCash/Maya in PH; M-Pesa in Kenya) alongside banks. Both have central-bank-mandated interoperability layers (QR Ph in PH; KE-QR in Kenya). Different scale and timing but structurally similar regulatory pattern [[m-pesa-ref], [ke-qr-ref]].

## Fun facts

**Philippines achieved its 50 % digital retail payment target ahead of the 2023 deadline** — reached **52.8 % in 2023 and 57.4 % in 2024**, with BSP now targeting **60–70 % by 2028** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>. The combination of QR Ph's unified standard + GCash's market dominance + InstaPay's instant rails + government-disbursement digitisation created an unusually fast cashless trajectory by ASEAN standards.

**GCash dominates QR Ph consumer adoption with ~60 million users** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup> — in a country of ~115 million population, this is one of the highest per-capita adoption rates of any single payment app worldwide. GCash's structural advantage is its bundling with **Globe Telecom** mobile services; the parent operator subsidises onboarding cost-of-acquisition through telecom-customer cross-marketing.

The **+203.6 % YoY transaction volume growth in Jan-Nov 2025** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup> is one of the steepest growth curves recorded for a national payment system at this scale. The InstaPay + PESONet combined volume more than tripled in one year — driven by QR Ph adoption, government-disbursement digitisation, and post-pandemic continued cashless preference.

**Philippines is a founding member of Project Nexus** — the BIS-overseen multilateral cross-border instant-payment initiative connecting Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, plus India as founding member <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>. Project Nexus's design goal is to replace the bilateral-link-per-country-pair pattern (currently used by SGQR ↔ DuitNow, PromptPay ↔ PayNow, etc.) with a single multilateral hub — and Philippines is positioned to benefit from this as cross-border consumer payments grow.

**QR Ph design uses Philippine flag colours (red-blue-yellow)** in its logo <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup> — making the standard immediately visually identifiable as Filipino national infrastructure rather than a private-company product. The distinct logo distinguishes QR Ph from the older bank-and-e-wallet-specific QR codes that preceded it.

## Status

**Active, growing fast, expanding cross-border** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH), [4][4]</sup>:

- **57.4 % digital retail payment share** (2024) — exceeded 50 % target ahead of schedule
- **PHP 22.054 trillion** combined InstaPay + PESONet value (Jan-Nov 2025)
- **4.065 billion transactions** (Jan-Nov 2025, +203.6 % YoY)
- **All major banks and e-wallets** participate (BDO, BPI, UnionBank, Landbank, Metrobank, GCash, Maya, etc.)
- **InstaPay-PayNow (Singapore)** cross-border linkage live
- **Project Nexus founding member** — BIS multilateral cross-border initiative

**Strategic trajectory** <sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>:
- **BSP target**: 60-70 % digital retail payments by 2028
- **Project Nexus** rollout — will multilateralise cross-border QR connectivity with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India
- **PHQR Global** (anticipated branding for cross-border outbound) following the JPQR Global / VietQR Global model
- **ISO 20022 messaging** continued adoption across the Philippine payment ecosystem
- **GCash / Maya competition** continues to drive consumer-app feature innovation

No deprecation planned. QR Ph is the Philippines' strategic national payment standard with a clear multi-year scaling and internationalisation roadmap.

## Sources

[1]: https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Media_and_Research/Primers%20Faqs/QR_Ph_P2P_FAQs.pdf
[2]: https://www.xendit.co/en-ph/blog/qr-ph-payments-in-the-philippines-a-business-guide-to-the-countrys-national-qr-standard/
[3]: https://www.bsp.gov.ph/Media_and_Research/Primers%20Faqs/QR_Ph_P2M_FAQs.pdf
[4]: https://www.maya.ph/business/stories/7-questions-about-the-national-qr-code-standard-qr-ph-answered
[5]: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/11/bsp-moves-to-implement-national-qr-payment-standard-for-fintech-industry/
[6]: https://hitpayapp.com/blog/activating-qr-ph-for-your-brick-and-mortar-store-in-2025-hitpay-scan-to-pay-vs-maya-qr)
[7]: https://www.bsp.gov.ph/PaymentAndSettlement/QR%20Ph%20P2P%20Participants.pdf
[8]: https://www.transfi.com/blog/philippines-payment-rails-how-they-work---from-instapay-pesonet-to-gcash-maya-real-time-transfers
[9]: https://fintechnewsph.com/qr-ph-explainer-2025-how-to-pay/
[10]: https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/adulting/103782/qr-ph-code-a5229-20230216
[ph-cro]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH
[sg-cro]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SG
[my-cro]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/MY
[in-cro]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/IN
[pix-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/pix
[m-pesa-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/m-pesa-ke
[ke-qr-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/ke-qr-code

1. [QR Ph P2P FAQs — BSP][1]
2. [QR Ph Business Guide — Xendit][2]
3. [QR Ph P2M FAQs — BSP][3]
4. [7 Questions about QR Ph Answered — Maya][4]
5. [BSP moves to implement national QR — BusinessMirror][5]
6. [QR Ph at brick-and-mortar — HitPay][6]
7. [QR Ph P2P participants — BSP / BancNet][7]
8. [Philippines payment rails — Transfi][8]
9. [QR Ph Explainer 2025 — Fintech News PH][9]
10. [QR Ph and merchant list — Spot.ph][10]
11. [PH-philippines.md]<sup>[Philippines report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)</sup>

## Deployments

Found in the following country reports (grep across `reports/countries/`):

- **PH** — [PH-philippines.md](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/PH)