Indonesia, Malaysia intergrate cross-border payment with QR code

A small coffee business displays its goods and the QRIS payment code. (Photo: thejakartapost.com)

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Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia and Malaysia have officially launched cross-border payment with Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) after months of testing.

Attending the launch ceremony, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo said that the QRIS expansion allows users from either country to use the QR code standard managed by BI for payments in either country, thereby doing away with the need to exchange money or carry a credit card.

The integration of QRIS allows same-chain sellers in both countries to be paid through either system with a QR code.

Governor Perry added that the integration of the payment system brings convenience to the people of the two countries because the number of traffic and transactions between these two neighbouring countries is often very high.

In 2022,  about 1.03 million Malaysian tourists traveled to Indonesia, accounting for 19% of foreign tourists to Indonesia, while in the previous year, 480,700 arrivals were reported, just behind Timor-Leste.

Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said the cooperation will enable “fast, secure and cost-efficient payments”.

Malaysia and Indonesia will continue to discuss to expand the linkage to support instant fund transfers, she said, adding that it will benefit Malaysians and Indonesians who live, study or work in the other country to send money back home more easily and cheaply.

From the Indonesian side, the arrangement involves more than 20 financial institutions, including Bank Sinarmas, Bank Permata, Bank Central Asia and several digital payment providers, such as DANA, Gopay and OVO.

On the Malaysian side, several big banks including CIMB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Maybank and United Overseas Bank Malaysia, have been involved, responsible for ensuring smooth connectivity.

Indonesia has concluded the same arrangement with Thailand, and the government is looking to similar deals with Singapore and the Philippines.

In March, BI opened the possibility of further expanding the cooperation to Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.

The QRIS is a QR code developed by the Bank of Indonesia and the Indonesian Payment Systems Association to perform cashless transactions and payments in Indonesia.

As of March, the total value of QRIS transactions amounted to 15.35 trillion Rp (1.04 million USD) in almost 135 million transactions. The Indonesian government is looking to reach 45 million QRIS users and 1 billion transactions this year./.