The Accredited Standards Committee X9, the nonprofit accredited by ANSI to develop U.S. PAYMENTS industry standards, has published X9.150, the first-ever American national standard for merchant-presented QR code payments, designed to enable every bank or merchant app with a QR code reader to execute secure, interoperable instant account-to-account payments across any U.S. institution. The standard, developed since 2024 with support from Federal Reserve Financial Services, uses public key cryptography including post-quantum-secure signatures through the X9 Financial PKI, requires scanning from within an authenticated banking or wallet app, and does not expose financial account details. The U.S. currently processes approximately 45 million instant payments per month compared to 8 billion in Brazil and 20 billion in India, a gap X9.150 is designed to close by eliminating the fragmentation that has prevented large-scale QR payment adoption across networks and providers.
A New QR Code Standard Could Boost Instant Payments, X9 Committee Says
