The People’s Bank of China, a central bank, is set to regulate payments through scannable codes such as QR codes and barcodes for increasing security and preventing fraud.
Initially, a cap of CNY500 ($76) will be imposed on payments through standard QR codes, with plans to increase to CNY5,000 ($765) as an additional security measure in the future.
The central bank is reported to have issued guidelines for self-regulation by institutions and tapped an industry group to study QR codes of various businesses and come up with measures to improve their security.
In addition, the bank is said to have called for encryption, tokenisation, risk monitoring, anti-counterfeit measures and security software for QR payments.
It further asked banks as well as non-banking payment institutions to channel any cross-bank transactions associated with barcodes through its clearing system or other legal clearing houses.
