The Indonesian Central Bank (BI) has expressed its readiness to cooperate with the United States in using the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) digital payment system. 

"If America is ready, we (Indonesia) are ready, why not (to cooperate)?" BI Senior Deputy Governor, Destry Damayanti, said on the sidelines of the "Financial Education for Indonesian Migrant Workers" event in Jakarta, on Monday, April 21, 2025.

She was responding to U.S. criticism regarding trade barriers in Indonesia's financial sector.

Destry emphasized that Indonesia does not discriminate against partner countries in establishing cooperation on digital payment systems, both for QRIS and other fast payment services.

She also dismissed the notion of discrimination against financial service providers from the U.S., saying that credit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard − two U.S. financial giants − still dominate the Indonesian market.

This statement came after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) included Indonesia in its trade barriers report, one of which was due to the implementation of QRIS through BI Regulation No. 21/2019. In the document, USTR assessed that U.S.companies were not sufficiently involved in the process of formulating BI's QR code policy and were not given space to express their views.

In addition to QRIS, the U.S. also highlighted the National Payment Gateway (GPN) policy which was considered to limit the participation of foreign companies. USTR noted objections to the limitation of foreign ownership of a maximum of 20 percent in switching service providers and the obligation to partner with local switching providers that have received permission from BI.

The USTR document also stated that BI considered aspects of support for the development of the national industry, including technology transfer, before approving the partnership.

In its response, the Indonesian government said that it would immediately prepare a framework for bilateral cooperation. In a ministerial meeting in Washington DC, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer agreed to have further discussions within the next 60 days.

"At the technical level, we immediately moved quickly to hold a technical meeting between the Indonesian Technical Team and the USTR Team," Airlangga said in Jakarta on April 17, 2025.

The upcoming negotiations will discuss a number of key issues such as non-tariff barriers, digital trade, sectoral tariffs, and market access. The Indonesian government is targeting the discussion to be completed in two months so that the implementation of the agreement can be realized immediately.