--- title: "SBP and fintechs should abandon QR payments" url: "https://www.kitsuneai.co/blog/abandon-qr-payments" description: "At a counter, a customer is ready to pay. A QR sign sends them into a camera, an app and a recipient check." datePublished: "2026-11-07" dateModified: "2026-11-07" author: "Ali Imran Memon" --- [Home](https://www.kitsuneai.co/)[Blog](https://www.kitsuneai.co/blog)SBP and fintechs should abandon QR payments POV · Digital payments and small-business operations in Pakistan # SBP and fintechs should abandon QR payments At a counter, a customer is ready to pay. A QR sign sends them into a camera, an app and a recipient check. SBP and fintechs should retire that checkout method and put their effort into payment flows that make the merchant’s request clear. ![Ali Imran Memon](https://www.kitsuneai.co/assets/founder-headshot.webp) **Ali Imran Memon**Founder & CEO, Kitsune AI Nov 7, 20266 min read ![HABIBMETRO’s Raast merchant promotional imagery presented full bleed.](https://www.kitsuneai.co/assets/blog/cover-abandon-qr-payments.webp) *Photo: HABIBMETRO* **TL;DR** - A printed QR code makes the customer start payment by finding an app, opening its scanner and checking decoded details. - QR payments are in substantial use in Pakistan, and they bring a real low-cost acceptance benefit for small merchants. That does not make scanning a good checkout interface. - The government’s Raast QR subsidy covered transactions from September 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. That period has ended. - SBP and fintechs should abandon QR payments and move investment to direct account payments, merchant payment requests and tap acceptance where available. A customer reaches the counter with the purchase decided. The merchant puts a QR code in front of them and the customer takes over: open a payment app, find the scanner, frame the code, wait for it to read, inspect the recipient and amount, approve, then wait for confirmation. The merchant has turned payment initiation into a customer chore. That is a poor design for an ordinary sale. A printed matrix is hard to read by sight, does not tell the customer who it represents, and can leave them comparing the app’s decoded details with the name of the shop. The customer has to trust both the sign and the payment screen before money moves. A good checkout should make the merchant’s request visible and the customer’s decision simple. ## A printed code makes trust the customer’s job Physical QR signs can be tampered with. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has described criminals covering legitimate codes with replacements that redirect payments or send people to malicious sites. That is a general attack method documented by US law enforcement, not evidence of a Pakistani Raast incident or a higher fraud rate for QR payments. The design problem is still plain: a buyer cannot tell from the printed pattern whether it leads to the merchant. ([FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, “Cybercriminals Tampering with QR Codes to Steal Victim Funds”](https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2022/PSA220118)) The app has to decode the pattern and show a recipient the customer can verify. That check is sensible, yet it adds another decision at the point when the customer expected to pay. With a merchant-originated request, the merchant can present the payee and amount for approval. With tap acceptance, the customer brings a payment device to the merchant’s acceptance point. Each route still needs authentication, safeguards and dispute handling. The point is to stop making a scan of a static sign the default first step. ## Pakistan’s QR totals show adoption, not a good checkout SBP’s January to March 2026 review counted 2,506,772 QR-enabled merchants by quarter end. It also recorded 87.3 million QR and TILL merchant transactions worth PKR 0.55 trillion during the quarter. SBP reported QR merchant transaction growth of 41 percent quarter on quarter and value growth of 63 percent. Those figures show that customers and businesses are using the system at substantial scale. They do not change the experience at the counter: the customer still has to find a scanner, read the code and verify the destination. ([SBP, Payment Systems Quarterly Review Q3 FY26](https://www.sbp.org.pk/psd/pdf/PS-Review-Q3FY26.pdf)) The published measure combines QR and TILL transactions, while the merchant count is QR-enabled locations. It says nothing about the split of activity across merchants. Those totals show substantial use. My objection is the interface chosen for that scale. SBP’s subsidy circular selected QR transactions for financial support, with reimbursement divided between the customer’s and merchant’s financial institutions. The subsidy design shows where the money was directed. In September 2025, SBP set a PKR 3.5 billion allocation for Raast P2M QR transactions from September 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. It authorized reimbursement of 0.5 percent of each transaction up to PKR 100, shared between the customer’s and merchant’s financial institutions. Institutions could also charge up to 0.25 percent of transaction value for merchant onboarding and servicing. The specified window ended in June 2026. The allocation and rates show how the policy rewarded financial institutions for processing this kind of payment. ([SBP, Allocation of Subsidy for Raast Person-to-Merchant QR Payments](https://www.sbp.org.pk/circulars/pspod-circular-no-03-of-2025)) ## Low-cost acceptance does not excuse a clumsy sale There is a practical reason QR spread. SBP called it a low-cost alternative to POS terminals for small merchants, and its Raast page describes interoperable codes that work across banks, EMIs and wallets without dedicated merchant hardware. A printed sign can give a small shop a digital acceptance point at little setup effort. The installation advantage is clear. The customer still has to complete the app-and-scan routine each time they buy. ([SBP, Standardization of QR Codes for Payments in Pakistan](https://www.sbp.org.pk/circulars/psd-circular-no-02-of-2019)), ([SBP, Raast Person-to-Merchant](https://www.sbp.org.pk/our-subsidiaries/raast/raast-person-to-merchant)) App access and network access are part of digital payment flows more broadly. The distinctive QR burden is the scan and the follow-on recipient check. Replacing QR does not mean every shop can move to tap tomorrow, or that all methods have the same reach and cost. It means SBP should stop making a printed code the policy answer simply because it is easy to deploy. Raast’s merchant framework already includes payment through aliases, IBANs and Requests to Pay, alongside QR. It calls for immediate payment confirmation or rejection and for merchant funds to be credited in real time or on agreed timelines. SBP also describes SoftPOS, which lets merchants accept contactless card and mobile-wallet payments on a phone or tablet. These options provide a basis for a transition, with providers building clear payee-and-amount screens and expanding tap acceptance where devices and payment services support it. ([SBP, Launch of Raast Person-to-Merchant Service](https://www.sbp.org.pk/circulars/pspod-circular-no-04-of-2023)), ([SBP, Payment Systems Review FY25](https://www.sbp.org.pk/PS/PDF/Annual-Payment-Systems-Review-FY25.pdf)) ## Retire QR and fund better checkout SBP and fintechs should abandon QR payments. The regulator should direct future payment incentives and implementation effort toward account initiation, merchant-originated payment requests and tap acceptance, while providers give existing merchants and customers a practical transition path. The available alternatives have different device requirements and reach, so that transition will take work. That is a reason to build them with urgency, not to keep QR at the centre of checkout policy. Payment infrastructure succeeds at the counter when a customer can see who is asking for money, approve the right amount and leave with a clear confirmation. SBP and fintechs should direct their next investment at making those steps easier for both sides of the sale. QR paymentsRaastSBPFintechPakistanDigital payments and small-business operations in PakistanPakistani RaastQR CodesSteal Victim FundsTILLRaast P2M QRRaast Person-to-Merchant QR Payments ![Ali Imran Memon](https://www.kitsuneai.co/assets/founder-headshot.webp) Ali Imran Memon Founder & CEO, Kitsune AI Operator and builder across media, the creator economy and agentic AI. Founder of Kitsune AI, the Agentic AI Foundry. [Talk to the team →](https://www.kitsuneai.co/contact) [All articles](https://www.kitsuneai.co/blog)