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Standards/tuqr

TuQR

TypeNational QR
MentionedTL
Completeness59%high

Overview

TuQR (Timor Unified Quick Response) is Timor-Leste's national QR payment standard. The Banco Central de Timor-Leste (BCTL) launched it together with the Ti-FAST instant payment system on 12 September 2026 1. BCTL Instruction 34/2026 makes TuQR the mandatory national standard for QR-based payments. It defines TuQR as an arrangement for starting and accepting payments, not a payment system in its own right: TuQR transactions are routed and settled through Ti-FAST or another system BCTL authorises 2. At launch four institutions were integrated: BNCTL, Banku Kaebauk, Telemor Fintech (Mosan) and Lojami 1.

History

  • 7 November 2025. Governor Hélder Lopes said BCTL would bring in a national QR code in 2026, called Timor Unique QR (TUQR). It would set a national QR standard and lay the base for links with the ASEAN QR code network 7.
  • 8–11 May 2026. The Governor said TUQR would launch in August 2026, with a decree-law under discussion with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (MKAE) and the Ministry of Finance 8, 6. The planned rules would require businesses to let customers choose between cash and digital payment. The rollout would be phased because digital literacy is low and internet access is limited in rural and mountain areas. Tourism, hotels and restaurants would come first 6.
  • 10 September 2026. The Governor said the launch had moved from August to 12 September because the laws, criteria and regulations were still being prepared 9.
  • 9 September 2026. BCTL's Board of Directors approved Instruction 34/2026 on the TuQR national standard 2. On the same day it granted a Level C bank licence to Banco Kaebauk, S.A. 5.
  • 12 September 2026. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão and President José Ramos-Horta launched Ti-FAST and TuQR at Timor Plaza, Dili, as part of BCTL's 15th-anniversary celebrations 10, 11. BCTL and the National Bank of Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding on digital payments and cross-border connectivity at the ceremony 4.
  • 22 September 2026. Circular Letter 17/2026 made TuQR free for customers and merchants, backdated to 12 September 2026, "until further determination by the BCTL" 3.
  • 25 September 2026. BCTL and Bank Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding in Jakarta that includes exploring QRIS Cross-Border as a way to connect the two countries' payments 12, 13.

Naming. BCTL's launch release expands TuQR as "Timor Unified Quick Response" 1, and Circular Letter 17/2026 as "Timor Unified QR" 3. TATOLI, the national news agency, used "Timor Unique QR" before the launch 6, 7, 8 and "TIMOR-LESTE UNIQUE QR" on launch day 11. This page follows BCTL.

Contradiction noted. In November 2025 TATOLI reported the Governor as saying BCTL had launched Ti-Fast "this year" 7. BCTL dates the official launch of Ti-FAST to 12 September 2026 1.

Technical specification

Instruction 34/2026 sets the legal and operational rules. It leaves the payload format to a separate TuQR Technical Manual (Manual Técnico TuQR) 2.

Element What the sources show
Legal basis BCTL Organic Law (Law 5/2011) and Decree-Law 17/2015 on the National Payments System 2
Status Mandatory national standard for issuing and accepting QR payments. No provider may present a non-TuQR payment QR as the national standard 2
Settlement rail Ti-FAST, the national 24/7 instant retail payment system on ISO 20022, or another infrastructure BCTL authorises 1, 2
QR types Static QR (permanent beneficiary data; the payer enters the amount when needed) and dynamic QR (made for one transaction, may carry the amount and an expiry) 2
Payer checks With a static QR the app must show the beneficiary's name and the amount before authorisation. Before any payment the payer must see the beneficiary's name, the amount and currency, and any fees 2
Transaction states At least: started, pending, completed, rejected, expired, cancelled, reversed. Each transaction gets a unique identifier 2
Confirmation Payer and beneficiary both get an electronic confirmation with status, amount, date and time, beneficiary and unique reference. A photo or screenshot alone is not valid proof of payment 2
Limits The limits of the underlying account, source of funds or payment instrument 2
What the Technical Manual covers Structure, format and mandatory and optional data fields; static and dynamic QR rules; participant, merchant, amount and currency identification; validation, integrity, authentication and expiry; messages, response codes and error handling; testing, certification and versioning; the TuQR brand 2
Brand The TuQR name and logo belong to BCTL 2

Not published. Article 8 says BCTL "publishes or communicates to participants" the Technical Manual 2. No manual was found on bancocentral.tl, and the Instruction does not name EMVCo or any other base specification. The symbol's data layout, character set and error-correction level are therefore not documented on this page.

Use cases

  • Merchant payments. A merchant shows one national TuQR instead of a separate code for each provider, and the customer scans it with a participating banking or e-wallet app 1. Merchants may only use a code issued or approved by their acquirer, must check that it has not been tampered with, and must confirm payment in their own channel 2.
  • Small cash purchases. At the launch the Prime Minister described paying US$0.75 by phone, so the seller need not find small change 10. Circular 17/2026 names micro and small enterprises as a target of the fee waiver 3.
  • Tourism. BCTL named hotels and restaurants as the first sector to roll out, since many tourists arrive without cash 6.
  • Cross-border payments (planned). TuQR starts with domestic payments. BCTL plans QR and instant-payment links with some ASEAN countries and others 1, and is exploring QRIS Cross-Border with Bank Indonesia 12. Each cross-border use needs BCTL's specific approval 2.

Implementations

There is no open-source TuQR encoder or decoder, since the format is not public. Implementations are the apps of certified participants 2.

Participant Status
BNCTL, Banku Kaebauk, Telemor Fintech (Mosan), Lojami Integrated at launch, 12 Sep 2026 1, 10
BRI Expected in November 2026, per the Governor at launch 10
Bank Mandiri Expected in October 2026 10
BNU and Ti-One Expected "next week" (from 12 Sep 2026) 10
Banco do Nosso Futuro (BNF) Expected in 2027 10

Participation needs more than a payment-services licence. A provider must pass conformance, interoperability, security, performance, continuity and user-experience tests and get BCTL's approval 2.

Comparison

TuQR Provider QR codes in Timor-Leste QRIS Cross-Border (Indonesia)
Owner BCTL 2 Each provider, e.g. TPAY, Livin' by Mandiri QR Timor-Leste report Bank Indonesia 13
Interoperability Any certified participant's customer can pay any TuQR 2 Tied to one provider's app Timor-Leste report Lets Indonesian users pay abroad with domestic apps, and visitors from partner countries pay in Indonesia 13
Settlement Ti-FAST 2 — —

Migration. Instruction 34/2026 requires providers that already run their own QR solutions to submit a migration plan to BCTL. New non-TuQR codes are banned from a date BCTL sets, and existing ones must be replaced or withdrawn within 30 days of that date unless BCTL sets another deadline 2. Under the Instruction, a single-provider QR is therefore a transitional format, not an alternative.

Fun facts

  • A bank licensed three days before launch. Banco Kaebauk got its definitive bank licence on 9 September 2026 5 and was one of the four institutions live on TuQR on 12 September 1.
  • Screenshots don't count. The Instruction says that a photo or screenshot of a payment is not, by itself, valid confirmation, and merchants must not rely only on images as proof 2.
  • Security worries at the launch. Both the Prime Minister and the President used the launch to ask BCTL and the banks for stronger protection; the Prime Minister cited people "from Europe" ("husi Europa") emptying people's accounts at ATMs 15. The President asked BCTL to explain TuQR to market vendors, saying he would still take cash to the markets in Maubisse, Aileu and Baucau 10.

Status

Active since 12 September 2026 1. Transactions are free for customers and merchants under Circular Letter 17/2026 until BCTL decides otherwise 3. On 9 October 2026 the Governor cited TUQR and T-FAST to the 41st meeting of South Pacific central bank governors as Timor-Leste's digital-payments base for cross-border connectivity 14. BCTL has not published TuQR transaction figures on the pages reviewed.

Sources

Deployments

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

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

  • Timor-Leste
source · content/standards/tuqr/index.md