NBS Enables Viber PayChat Payments via Prenesi
NBS and local banks opened the Prenesi payment service to outside apps. Viber is first, via the PayChat chatbot, though transfers still run through banking apps.
The National Bank of Serbia announced today, September 22, that it has, together with the participants in the IPS NBS payment system, enabled a standard for using so called deep link technology within the Prenesi service. The practical effect: payments through that service can now be started from apps other than mobile banking itself.
The first company to use the standard is Viber, through its PayChat chatbot. Payment service providers had already upgraded their mobile banking apps beforehand, so they can now accept a payment order launched externally, from a third party app.
As NBS describes it, a user inside Viber’s PayChat can ask another user for money, or send money to them. Sending requires nothing more than the recipient’s mobile phone number, with no need to enter an account number.
The actual transfer of money, however, does not happen inside Viber. The user is redirected to their mobile banking app and the Prenesi service, where the transaction is carried out. Viber stays a communication channel between payer and recipient, not a channel for the payment itself.
NBS said the Viber rollout shows how the new standard can be put to use.
“The standard provides a basis for developing other innovative solutions, adapted to different digital channels and to the everyday needs of citizens and businesses,” the central bank said in its statement.
The statement does not mention any fees for using the PayChat option, per transaction limits, or a list of banks whose apps already support the new standard. NBS says the move is part of its continued work on upgrading the national instant payment infrastructure, while keeping the system secure and reliable.
