What the QR-bill replaced
The QR-bill replaced Switzerland’s older red and orange inpayment slips. It was introduced in 2020, and the old slips were withdrawn on 30 September 2022, so from 1 October 2022 the QR-bill became the standard for bills paid in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The standard is maintained by SIX on behalf of the Swiss financial center.
A QR-bill has a payment part and a receipt, usually printed at the bottom of an invoice. The payment part contains the Swiss QR Code, which banking apps and scanning devices read, along with the same details in human-readable text.
The Swiss QR Code
The Swiss QR Code is a standard QR code with a Swiss cross in the center, which makes it easy to recognize and to tell apart from ordinary codes. The code measures 46 × 46 mm and the cross 7 × 7 mm, and the code is generated with error correction level M so the cross does not stop it from being read. The data is plain text with one field per line, starting with the header SPC.
- Header SPC, a version number and coding type
- IBAN or QR-IBAN of the creditor
- Creditor name and address
- Amount and currency, CHF or EUR
- Debtor details (optional)
- Reference type: QRR (QR reference, used with a QR-IBAN), SCOR (ISO 11649 creditor reference) or NON
- Unstructured message and optional billing information