Bank Indonesia (BI) will be integrating cross-border payment systems with the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) network with Singapore at the end of 2023.
Bilateral cooperations with Singapore and other countries
Filianingsih Hendarta, Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) said that BI and the Central Bank of Singapore confirmed the inauguration of a cross-border payment system collaboration with the QRIS network.
QRIS Cross Border is a cross-border payment system based on a QR code that can be used for cross-border transactions. Currently, Indonesia is exploring cooperation with several countries such as India, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Previously, cooperation with Malaysia and Thailand had been successfully carried out so that the use of QRIS for payment could be carried out in the two countries.
Several Central Banks from ASEAN, such as BI, Bank Negara Malaysia, Central Bank ng Pilipinas, Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Thailand, have agreed to cooperate in supporting faster, cheaper, transparent and inclusive payment system.
The banks in Thailand that have integrated QRIS in their system are Bank CIMB Thailand, Bank of Ayudhya, Krung Thai Bank, Kasikorn Bank, and Siam Commercial Bank.
Meanwhile in Malaysia, Public Bank Berhad, Razer Merchant Services Sdn Bhd, United Overseas Bank Berhad, TNG Digital Sdn Bhd, Axiata Digital eCode Sdn Bhd (Boost), AmBank Malaysia Berhad, Maybank Berhad and Hong Leong Bank Berhad.
QRIS features being improved
Currently, QRIS transaction only involves scanning the QR code through the payment application from the country without the need to exchange money with the local currency of the country visited. Automatically user’s account balance will be converted to the designated currency and deducted accordingly.
Later Bank Indonesia will add several features for withdrawing money, transfers and cash deposits. This feature will be ready for use in August 2023, and is believed to improve the service quality of digital payment systems.
“This feature can also encourage financial inclusion because it can be used in outreach areas. If there are no ATMs or banks in that area, cash transfer, withdrawal and deposit transactions can be done as long as there is a QRIS merchant,” said Hendarta.
Meanwhile, using QRIS for currency conversion for payments is done automatically. However, it is not known whether the exchange rate conversion was based on real-time rate, based on an agreed rate between respective countries, rate provided by banks, or the average conversion rate at a certain time.
