Standards/upn-qr
UPN QR
Overview
UPN QR (Univerzalni Plačilni Nalog QR Code — Universal Payment Order QR Code) is Slovenia's standardised payment-order format with QR-code-embedded payment data — defined by the Slovenian Bank Association 1, 2, Slovenia report. UPN serves as Slovenia's unified payment form replacing previous special money order + payment order formats. The QR code on UPN payment forms contains all the information from the UPN (IBAN of payee, name + address of payee, purpose, payment-purpose code, amount, reference, date of execution) — enabling simple scan-and-pay via mobile banking apps + automatic data capture.
The structural significance: UPN QR launched April 3, 2017 with 1-year migration period until April 3, 2018 — making it Europe's earlier QR-code-embedded payment-form standards. Bank of Slovenia (Banka Slovenije / BSI) National Payments Council drove the standardisation. The standardised payment-order-with-QR model is structurally distinctive — UPN QR is paper-form-centric (printed on physical invoices + bills) with QR-code-embedded data, bridging traditional paper-payment-orders + modern mobile-banking-scan-pay workflows. Multiple Slovenian banks (Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Slovenia, Unicredit Slovenia, NLB, NKBM, others) + payment-processor Bankart support UPN QR. UPN QR vs EPC QR conversion tools exist for European-payment-area interoperability — illustrating UPN's status as a Slovenia-specific national standard alongside European SEPA-EPC QR alternatives.
History
Background — Slovenian payment landscape Slovenia report:
- Banka Slovenije (BSI) — central bank, member of Eurosystem.
- Slovenian Bank Association (Združenje bank Slovenije / ZBS) — bank industry body.
- Bankart — Slovenian payment processor.
- Slovenia adopted Euro 2007.
Pre-UPN — multiple payment-order forms 1:
- Special money order + payment order forms.
UPN unified form launch 2:
- Replaces special money order + payment order.
Slovenian Bank Association technical specification 1:
- UPN technical standard.
April 3, 2017 — UPN QR launches 2:
- Slovenian Bank Association + member banks.
April 3, 2018 — UPN QR full migration 2:
- 1-year transition completed.
Multi-bank + multi-software ecosystem 3:
- Open-source generators + OpenCart integrations + UPN-EPC converters.
Technical specification
UPN QR is Slovenian Bank Association-defined unified payment-order form with QR-embedded data 1, 2:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| Standard owner | Slovenian Bank Association (ZBS) |
| Country | Slovenia |
| Currency | EUR |
| Form | Universal Payment Order (UPN) with QR code |
| Launch | April 3, 2017 (full migration April 3, 2018) |
| QR-encoded fields | IBAN of payee, name + address, purpose, purpose code, amount, reference, date of execution |
| Capture model | Scan QR via mobile banking app, automatic data capture |
| Distribution | Paper + electronic invoices |
| Companion | EPC QR (SEPA, conversion tools exist) |
Use cases
Bill + invoice payment 1: Cardinal — printed on bills + invoices.
Mobile-banking-app QR scan-to-pay 1: Standard UX.
Automatic data capture 1: Faster + more accurate vs manual entry.
Government + utility payments 2: Standardised across budget users.
Multi-bank universal acceptance 2: Slovenian bank-system standard.
UPN-to-EPC QR conversion [upn-epc]: Cross-border SEPA flow.
Implementations & ecosystem
Standard owner: Slovenian Bank Association (ZBS).
Coordinator: Banka Slovenije (BSI) National Payments Council.
Major Slovenian banks supporting UPN QR: Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Slovenia, Unicredit Slovenia, NLB, NKBM, Sparkasse Slovenia, Addiko Bank, Delavska hranilnica, others.
Payment processor: Bankart.
Open-source tools: php-upn-qr-generator (GitHub: DataLinx).
OpenCart extensions: UPN QR code payment extensions.
UPN-to-EPC converters: upn-epc-qr.si.
Fun facts
- April 3, 2017 launch + April 3, 2018 full migration: Defined 1-year transition.
- Paper-form-centric design with QR: Bridges traditional payment-orders + modern scan-pay.
- All payment fields encoded in QR: IBAN, name, purpose, amount, reference, date.
- Universal Slovenian bank coverage: Industry-wide standardisation.
- Open-source generators on GitHub: Developer-friendly.
- UPN-EPC conversion tools: SEPA cross-border interoperability.
- Slovenian-specific national standard: Complementary to EU EPC QR.
- Bank of Slovenia National Payments Council coordination: Central-bank-supported.
Comparison
| Feature | UPN QR (SI) | EPC QR (EU SEPA) | Giro QR (DE) | Postin QR (FI) | Swish QR (SE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard owner | Slovenian Bank Association (ZBS) | EPC (European Payments Council) | Various DE bank associations | Finnish bank standards | Swedish bank consortium |
| Country | Slovenia | EU SEPA | Germany | Finland | Sweden |
| Form | Paper-form + QR-embedded UPN | SEPA Credit Transfer QR | Giro form + QR | Postin form + QR | Mobile-app-driven |
| Launch | April 3, 2017 | 2017 | n/a | n/a | 2012 |
| Scope | Bills + invoices + government payments | SEPA credit transfers | Bills + invoices | Bills + invoices | P2P mobile payments |
Status
Active, mature SI national standard 1, 2:
- Slovenian Bank Association owner.
- April 3, 2017 launch + April 3, 2018 full migration.
- All major Slovenian banks support.
- Open-source developer tools available.
- UPN-to-EPC QR conversion for SEPA cross-border.
Sources
- 1 UPN QR Technical Standard — Slovenian Bank Association
- 2 Introduction of UPN QR form — Bank of Slovenia
- 3 php-upn-qr-generator — GitHub
- upn-epc UPN QR to EPC QR Converter
- Slovenia report
reports/countries/SI-slovenia.md
Deployments
Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):
- IE — IE-ireland.md
- SI — SI-slovenia.md