Bangla QR and bKash QR codes explained

What Bangla QR is

Bangladesh Bank introduced Bangla QR in its guidelines of 6 January 2021 (PSD Circular No. 01). Before that, some banks, payment schemes and MFS providers ran their own closed-loop QR codes, which only their own customers could pay. Bangladesh Bank developed Bangla QR with the industry as the national standard for open, interoperable QR payments.

It adopts the EMVCo merchant-presented QR code specification. The merchant shows the code; the customer scans it with their own financial institution's app and pays. Payments can come from a bank account, a debit, credit or prepaid card, an MFS account or an e-wallet.

The guideline describes two kinds of code:

• Static: a printed code without an amount. The customer scans it, types the amount and pays.
• Dynamic: a code made for one payment, with the amount in it. The customer scans and pays without typing.

The rule replacing other merchant QR codes

Bangladesh Bank's circular letter of 1 April 2026, titled "Replacement of Proprietary QR with Bangla QR at all Merchant Points", tells scheduled banks, MFS providers, payment service providers and payment system operators to replace their own proprietary QR codes at all merchant points with Bangla QR. It also asks them to keep the Bangla QR channel running without interruption and to make sure shops display Bangla QR clearly.

Bangladesh Bank has issued several other Bangla QR circulars in 2026, including on fees and charges, incentives for Bangla QR payments, expanding Bangla QR, and dispute resolution for Bangla QR merchant payments. In May 2026 it renamed its Cashless Bangladesh Unit the Bangla QR Implementation Unit. The full texts are on its circulars page.

How a shop gets a Bangla QR code

The guideline calls the bank, MFS, payment service provider or operator that signs up a merchant the acquirer. The acquirer assigns the merchant ID, keeps the merchant's record and account, settles the money, and provides the code and the app. So to get a Bangla QR code:

1. Ask your bank or MFS provider, for example the one you already use for business payments, to enrol you for Bangla QR.
2. They check your business under their own risk rules and the regulations of Bangladesh Bank and the BFIU.
3. They give you your Bangla QR code, laid out on Bangladesh Bank's template with the Bangla QR logo, your merchant details and the acquirer's details.

Display it at your counter, or on a screen; the guideline allows both.

bKash QR codes

bKash is a mobile financial service, so the 2026 circular letter covers its QR codes at merchant points: they are to be Bangla QR codes.

When bKash signs up a shop, it is the acquirer, and under the guideline the acquirer assigns the merchant ID inside the code. That's why a shop's bKash QR comes from bKash, and why websites offering a "bKash QR code generator" can't create a code that pays into your account. For the steps in the app, including any personal QR for receiving money from friends, use bKash's own help; we couldn't read bKash's website to check its steps, so we don't repeat them here.

Paying with Bangla QR safely

Bangladesh Bank tells issuers to remind customers to check the merchant's name and details before paying. So scan the code in your own app and read the name it shows before you confirm. Both you and the shop should get a notification straight away, by SMS or email under the guideline. Shops should wait for theirs before handing over goods.

The guideline also says acquirers must not pass the merchant discount rate on to you. If a shop adds a charge for paying by QR, you can raise it with the shop's bank or MFS provider.

For payment QR codes you can safely make yourself in other countries, see how payment QR codes work.