QR-bill: Are the banks ready for it?
The changeover from payment slips to QR bills is to be completed by September 30, 2022. But some banks are finding it difficult to offer their customers an adequate service.
The QR bill is the eierlegende Wollmilchsau in Swiss payment transactions: It serves the old world of post office counters for people who like to pay their bills with cash on the basis of a paper receipt and receive a stamp on the receipt as a "reward". And yes, it still exists, the yellow booklet that knows a fan base that can't be quelled. Approximately 15% of the roughly one billion bills sent out each year are still paid at the post office counter (source: SIX Group AG). However, the QR bill also makes it easier to scan payment data for customers who have long since switched to digital channels such as mobile or online banking. For this customer group, the new format offers some new conveniences, but many banks are not (yet) taking advantage of them.
QR bill pay
The financial institutions have done their basic homework: they can record payments on the basis of a QR invoice. On the one hand, this concerns the classic channel, namely the submission of physical receipts by means of a postal remuneration order. On the other hand, the Swiss QR code can usually be scanned in the mobile banking app with the smartphone camera, which eliminates the tedious typing of account and reference numbers. However, the new format fails in the most important channel of all, online banking: Neither can the Swiss QR Code be scanned with the PC camera, nor can an invoice sent via e-mail as a pdf document be read. For most users, this still means manually typing in endless numbers or copy-paste orgies. The fact that individual banks have linked online and mobile banking in such a way that a QR invoice, which one would like to pay on the PC, must first be scanned in with the smartphone, makes things only marginally better, as one is forced to handle different devices and logins. The potential for increased efficiency that the QR bill would have had is thus wasted.
Create QR Invoice
It is practical for the banks, because it reduces costs, that they can now discontinue the order administration for the orange and red payment slips. While some are still waiting a few months, others have already discontinued the service. Instead, those banks that rely on avaloq or finova as their core banking system offer their online banking customers the option of obtaining pre-printed QR payment slips, as the slips are now called. However, this service is not designed to be very customer-friendly, because:
- Preprinted is only the invoicing party, but not the payer and also not the invoice amount.
- QR payment parts can be ordered with a reference number, but since these are produced in a vacuum, billers must laboriously assign them to the correct debtor in their customer accounting system.
- Because the content of the QR code must match the plain text information on the receipt, billers are not allowed to subsequently print the payers' details. This task is outsourced to the latter, which is moderately customer-friendly.
Banks still have room for improvement
These three points alone illustrate that the banks still have room for improvement. Ironically, this system is not only not very customer-oriented, but also cements the time-consuming order administration and the cost-intensive printing and mailing service of physical receipts. However, since most business customers are currently still pushing out the changeover, there is little pressure calling for a more meaningful solution. This is likely to change in the course of this year, when even the last companies, self-employed persons, fiduciaries and associations can no longer ignore the fact that payment slips are really disappearing.
The remedy for the aforementioned service gaps lies in solutions such as those offered by startups like www.qrmodul.ch have developed. The "QR Module" solution came in first in the user voting for the Best Retail Cases Swiss Award took third place in the e-commerce category. It offers its customers a SaaS service not only for the creation of fully completed QR payment parts, but also, in addition, the creation of complete invoices in the customer's own design and language of choice. So once again, it is small, innovative fintechs that are providing the necessary efficiency gains.
Author:
Beni Schwarzenbach is the Managing Director of QR Modul in Zurich.
