On July 19, Kazakhstan is launching a unified interbank QR payment system, but its full operation may not begin immediately — the service's availability will depend on the specific banks involved, reports infohub.kz.
Financial expert Aigerim Ilyasova from the Qazaq Expert Club notes that banks are being connected to the system in stages, and the process should be completed by July 19. Nevertheless, during the first weeks after launch, the service's functionality may vary depending on which bank the buyer and the merchant use.
For the unified QR to work fully, several key issues must be resolved: agreeing on payment terms among participants, including the size of acquisition fees; creating reliable anti-fraud mechanisms; and ensuring secure data exchange. The absence of a unified QR primarily hurts businesses — entrepreneurs often have to work with multiple banks using different terminals or QR codes. Additionally, merchants pay an acquisition fee of about 1% of the transaction amount, which is a significant expense for small shops.
If the system works as planned, it will bring several benefits: buyers will have more freedom and will not depend on the seller's terminal; sellers can lower commission costs by installing one universal terminal instead of several; and banks will be forced to compete for customers, improving their services and terms. According to the expert, the largest market players are objectively not interested in losing payment traffic and redistributing their client base, but the launch of a unified QR should create more equal conditions for all players. Now the main task is to move the system from an adaptation period to a fully operational mode.
It is worth recalling that the unified QR code for payments and transfers in Kazakhstan was initially planned for launch in 2025 but was postponed due to technical difficulties.