Indonesia launches QR code standards
Bank Indonesia (BI), the country’s central bank, has launched its Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS) code system, a new type of QR code standards, aiming to homogenise cashless payments nationwide.
QRIS is, overall, a more complex QR pattern and it allows users from one payment service to transfer funds to any rival service under BI’s umbrella.
The Jakarta Post reports that customers using e-wallet services like LinkAja, for example, could transfer funds to a shopkeeper using OVO, a different e-wallet service.
All it needs is that at least one party has a QRIS code.
“QRIS allows QR-code-facilitated payments to be interconnected and interoperable through a single standardised code,” says BI governor Perry Warjiyo during the launch ceremony in Jakarta.
The central bank has been developing QRIS since early last year.
Since then, it has sought partnerships with financial institutions, banks, interbank network providers and e-wallet T-cash (now LinkAja). BI based the QRIS pattern on the Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) international standard.
The central bank’s deputy governor Sugeng says the standard’s deployment cost was lower than, for instance, chip cards and RFID tags, which would have been a standardisation alternative.
QR code deployment could be as cheap as printing the code and downloading a smartphone app, not requiring the expense of buying an EMV reader.
“We believe that such a modern fast payment system is vital to support economic activity in Indonesia, where economic growth is still at around 5%. We believe that if the digital economy players leverage this new payment system, growth may be above 5% in the years to come,” adds Sugeng.
