A customer makes a payment using a QR code. Vietnam Electricity (EVN) is working with commercial banks and intermediary payment services institutions to implement QR codes for power bill payments. — Photo nld.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — Using QR codes to process payments has been increasing in popularity over the past 12 months, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

Cashless payment and transaction channels are increasingly popular, with commercial banks, e-wallets and fintech companies promoting the application of technology for online payments.

Many customers now choose cashless payments, the most popular being a payment card, followed by scanning a QR code and transferring money.

Card payment sales at many goods and service suppliers have also increased significantly. Commercial banks and e-wallet companies said that cashless transactions are even more popular now than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ngô Trung Lĩnh, General Director of Viet Union Online Services Corporation, said its Payoo payment platform recorded increased cashless payment transactions in the post-COVID recovery phase last year.

New payment methods, such as e-wallets or QR code scanning, have grown significantly. Non-cash payment methods will continue to grow on last year, including QR codes.

"Enterprises are ready for infrastructure with low investment costs, bringing convenience to people when paying. The outstanding method that meets the above factors and is likely to explode next year is paying via QR codes," said Lĩnh.

With a mobile phone in hand, he added that they could open banking applications or e-wallets to choose a source of money to scan the code and make payments.

QR payments have even gone international. National Payment Corporation of Việt Nam (NAPAS) and Thailand’s National ITMX (NITMX) recently announced the completion of a retail payment connection using QR codes.

In the first phase of implementing this project, Thai tourists can scan VietQR codes to pay for goods and services at payment acceptance units of TPBank and BIDV.

Vietnamese tourists who are customers of TPBank and Sacombank can scan ThaiQR codes at nearly eight million payment points in Thailand.

NAPAS will continue to cooperate with NITMX to expand member banks to meet the demand of tourists in the two countries this year.