The Bank of Laos (BOL) has issued a statement to the general public regarding the use of QR code payment services being offered by financial institutions that have not been given authorization by the BOL.
The public statement stated that the only financial organizations that have been approved to offer QR code payment services to the public are BCEL (Banque Pour Le Commerce Extérieur Lao), Lao-Viet Bank (Lao-Vietnam Joint Venture Bank) and the New Concept Microfinance Institution. BCEL has One Pay, Lao-Viet Bank has QR Pay and New Concept has been given the green light to run a pilot service called Kapao E-wallet.
The Bank of Laos warned the public not to use any other QR Code payment services offered by companies, banks or financial institutions via mobile phone. Consumers are advised to immediately inform the BOL of any unauthorized services on 021 253 595 or 020 2222 3649 during working hours.
BCEL was the first commercial bank to launch the OnePay application last year allowing users to pay anyone, anywhere, directly from their account by simply photographing a QR code from the BCEL One App. Earlier this year, the bank entered into a strategic partnership with Thanachart Bank of Thailand to introduce QR Code payments in Thailand for the benefit of Lao shoppers.
The number of vendors in Laos registering for the BCEL OnePay QR code system is increasing by 10 percent a month with transactions also up 10 percent each month, according to the bank, which claims to have 90 percent of the mobile banking business in Laos.
BCEL’s customers number about one million, out of a national population of just under seven million. About 200,000 of them use the mobile banking application.