https://afcsblog.ingonoka.com/2026/08/ Recent content in August 2026 on AFCS Blog Hugo en https://afcsblog.ingonoka.com/post/qr-is-loosing-ground/ Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0800 https://afcsblog.ingonoka.com/post/qr-is-loosing-ground/ <div id="preamble"> <div class="sectionbody"> <div class="paragraph"> <p>Two developments in the payment industry in the Philippines are casting a shadow over the future of QR payments as a credible competitor to traditional payment cards.</p> </div> <div class="paragraph"> <p>The first one is GCash announcing <span class="citation">(<a href="#Lucas:2026vi">1</a>)</span> that they will allow credit cards to back retail payment transactions if there is not enough money in the GCash account.</p> </div> <div class="paragraph"> <p>The second is the introduction of ApplePay <span class="citation">(<a href="#Apple:2026ap">2</a>)</span>.</p> </div> <div class="paragraph"> <p>Why would those two developments be good or bad? The answer is as always: It depends. It is good for the trainload payment card schemes, bad for the e-wallet providers, somewhat neutral for the customer, and disastrous for competition in the payment industry.</p> </div> <div class="paragraph"> <p>In my new article, I will first take some educated guesses how these two products likely work, and then I will discuss why I think that this is not good for a healthy competitive payment industry.</p> </div>