Mexico’s central bank and Amazon.com Inc have launched a joint project aimed at improving mobile payments. A new government-backed mobile payment system will use QR codes, Reuters said.
The Mexico central bank’s head of payments announced the new mobile payments system, which programmed to use scanning technologies. The system known as CoDi is being built by central bank Banco de México, known as Banxico. Mexico’s new leftist government under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is betting on financial technology to help lift people out of poverty. moreover, the government believes that broad acceptance of CoDi would mark an important step in its financial inclusion strategy.
According to the experts, CoDi allows customers to make payments online and in person through smartphones free of charge using QR codes, one of the fastest way to pay so far. the new system aims to bring more people into the formal financial sector.
For Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, Mexico project becomes the milestone because it could eventually open a new customer base in a nation where more than half of the population has no bank account. According to Banxico, a pilot rollout of CoDi is expected this month.
Jaime Cortina, Mexico central bank’s director of operations and payments, noted that Amazon has also said that they could implement it relatively quickly. By April, CoDi could facilitate payments online as well as in stores across Mexico.
Amazon declined to comment. MercadoLibre confirmed that its payments arm MercadoPago was in contact with the central bank about digital payment solutions but declined to comment further.
