Swedish mobile payment solutions provider Seamless has partnered with the Romanian unit of Turkey’s Garanti Bank to launch a mobile Quick Response (QR) code payment network in Romania.
The system will initially be trialled in some supermarket chain stores. Consumers will be able to pay for their shopping by scanning a QR code – which consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background – with their smartphones. After a four-digit pin is entered, the phone will process the transaction by connecting the merchant’s bank account with the customers’ Garanti account.
The bank is a subsidiary of Turkey’s second largest privately-owned bank by assets, Garanti, which has a history of adopting innovative payment solutions. In June 2010, Garanti partnered with Turkish mobile operator Avea to launch Turkey’s first mobile NFC payment system. Since launching operations in Romania in 1998, Garanti has issued more than 230,000 credit and debit cards.
Seamless chief executive Peter Fredell, said: “The agreement with Garanti gives Seamless a very strong and innovative partner in the banking industry of Romania. We are honoured and excited about entering this collaboration and about addressing together the large potential the Romanian market has for mobile payments.”
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QR code technology was invented in 1994 in Japan. It is designed to decode information from labelled items at high speed thanks to its two dimensional code. Seamless introduced QR codes in the payment industry in November 2011. Mikael Malmquist, investor relations representative at Seamless, told Electronic Payments International that outside Romania, the company is also testing the system in four McDonald’s restaurants and some groceries stores in Sweden.
