IPS Payments at Belgrade newsstands

The NBS informs the public that we are seeing the first instant
payments at newsstands, meaning that at some newsstands buyers can make
cashless payments for goods or services by using solely their mobile
banking apps.

Such payments are enabled at Blok Shop newsstands in Novi Beograd
where buyers can make purchases via mobile phone. They are using the IPS
scan method, i.e. the buyer is scanning the merchant’s IPS QR code when
making payments. The buyer simply chooses the IPS scan option through
the mobile banking app, scans the IPS QR code and confirms the execution
of the transaction by entering PIN, a fingerprint or through face
recognition.

To be able to accept instant payments, these newsstands are using a
merchant application provided by Banca Intesa a.d. Beograd. Apart from
this bank, other payment service providers are offering their own
applications for the acceptance of instant payments, so merchants can
address banks and easily enable cashless payments for their buyers.

Instant payments provide special advantages to all merchants,
especially small ones at points of sale with a small average transaction
value. The reason lies in the simplicity of implementation and low
costs of acceptance of instant payments, borne by all IPS system
participants, which entails also significantly lower fees for merchants
when accepting instant payments compared to, for instance, payment
cards. Apart from such favourable terms, it is important to point out
once again that a regular mobile phone or some other mobile device can
be used for the acceptance of instant payments and that no special
hardware is required, which also positively impacts cost reduction.

The NBS is actively dedicated to increasing the number of cashless
payments in the market by providing the infrastructure and preconditions
for the creation and implementation of new payment models. We therefore
invite all interested legal persons and entrepreneurs, especially small
merchants, to consider implementing instant payments in their
operations and using multiple advantages offered by this form of
payment.