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Standards/unified-qr-sa

Unified QR SA

TypeQR Code
PrimarySA
Completeness53%medium

Supported wallets

The following wallets support this standard:

  • STC Bank

Overview

Saudi Arabia's unified QR (Saudi Payments) is the national, interoperable QR-code payment platform that Saudi Payments, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), commissioned from HPS (Hightech Payment Systems) in 2020. It lets banks, wallet providers and FinTechs "interact seamlessly within an interoperable platform" 3. SAMA's rulebook calls the project "Quick Response Code Technology (QR CODE)" (Arabic «تقنية رمز الاستجابة السريع») 1. HPS calls it "a unified QR code platform" and "a national QR code payment system" 3. "SAQR" was this corpus's old label for it, not an official name: the SAMA rulebook circular doesn't use it 1.

A merchant presents a QR code with a payment request, and the consumer verifies and pays, or rejects it. Codes can be static, for repeated use, or dynamic, for a single transaction 3, 2. The same code is meant to work regardless of the service provider or scheme 3. In a circular of 21 September 2021, SAMA required every entity that had already launched a QR payment service to comply with the project's technical and commercial requirements and to complete technical authorization with Saudi Payments before the end of 2021 1.

History

24 February 2019 — standardisation announced. Opening MEFTECH in Riyadh, the SAMA Governor said SAMA had worked with Saudi Payments "mada" "to standardize smart device payments through the QR code technology", served through "a unified window" for customers of e-wallets from different providers 4.

27 April 2019 — memorandum with 12 entities. mada signed a memorandum of understanding for a unified QR-code payment system with nine banks and three fintechs; the announcement doesn't name them 5.

27 February 2020 — HPS appointed. Saudi Payments appointed HPS to provide the unified QR code platform 3. Payments Cards & Mobile reported the launch on 9 March 2020 2.

21 September 2021 — SAMA circular. The rulebook circular "Quick Response Code Technology (QR CODE)" set the end-2021 deadline for existing QR services to complete technical authorization with Saudi Payments 1.

Vision 2030. HPS and SAMA place the national QR within the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP) of Saudi Vision 2030 3, 4.

Technical specification

Layer Description
Regulator Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) 1
Platform owner Saudi Payments (SAMA subsidiary) 3
Technology partner HPS (Hightech Payment Systems) 3
Messaging HPS describes the platform's payment environment as based on ISO 20022 3. This is a statement about the platform, not about the QR payload.
QR types Static (multiple transactions) and dynamic (single transaction) 3
Flow Merchant presents a payment request; consumer verifies and pays or rejects 3
Compliance deadline End of 2021, for services launched before the circular 1
Participants Banks, wallet providers and FinTechs 3

Payload format: not public. The SAMA circular directs implementers to Saudi Payments for "the technical authorization process" and gives only a contact address. It doesn't publish or link a payload specification 1. No fetched source describes the fields, encoding or checksum, so this page doesn't claim the code follows EMVCo MPM or any other layout.

Use cases

Merchant QR payments 3: a static code at the counter, or a dynamic code for each transaction.

E-wallet interoperability 4: one code payable from e-wallets of different providers.

Small merchants 4: SAMA's 2019 announcement cited the anticipated spread of the technology among micro and small enterprises and shops.

Implementations & ecosystem

Regulator: SAMA. Platform: Saudi Payments, built by HPS. HPS is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange 3.

Companion systems in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia report:

  • Mada, the national card scheme run by Saudi Payments.
  • Saudi e-wallets such as STC Bank (formerly STC Pay). Its customer app pays by QR code and withdraws cash at ATMs through a QR code, and its merchant app gives each shop a store QR code 6. STC Bank lists QR Payments among its business payment options 7. No source documents its payload either.

No open-source encoder or decoder exists, since the payload format isn't public.

Fun facts

  • Cash by QR. STC Pay's app let customers withdraw cash from an ATM by scanning a QR code 6.
  • No brand name. Unlike many national QR schemes, the official sources give the system no product name. SAMA describes it by its technology, "Quick Response Code Technology (QR CODE)" 1, and HPS by its function, "a unified QR code platform" 3.

Comparison

Feature Unified QR (SA) Mada (SA companion) Aani (UAE) QMP QR (QA) CliQ QR (JO)
Standards body SAMA + Saudi Payments SAMA + Saudi Payments Al Etihad Payments (CBUAE) QCB JoPACC (public-private)
Tech partner HPS n/a n/a n/a n/a
Messaging ISO 20022 (platform, per HPS) Internal ISO 20022 n/a ISO 20022
Type National unified QR National card scheme Instant payment + QR Mobile-payment switch + QR Instant payment + QR
Year 2019 (announced) – 2021 (SAMA circular) 1990 (2015 rebrand) Oct 2023 May 2023 Jun 2020

Status

In force. The SAMA rulebook lists the 21 September 2021 circular with "Status: In-Force" 1. Whether every provider met the end-2021 deadline is not confirmed by the fetched sources.

Sources

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.

source · content/standards/unified-qr-sa/index.md