LinkAja and Alliex discuss regional digital payments

LinkAja and Alliex discussed a regional payment network in Jakarta, ANTARA reported on 10 December 2024. Chief executives Yogi Rizkian Bahar and Park Byoung-gun agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement and consider a cooperation memorandum.

Park said Alliex had partnerships with seven banks and five mobile-payment companies in Vietnam. Further discussions would examine technical feasibility and specific areas of cooperation.

The domestic digital-payment base

Bank Indonesia's November policy review, published on 26 November, recorded 54.1 million QRIS users and 34.7 million merchants in October 2024. Transactions using the national QR-payment standard grew 183.9% year on year. The central bank also reported 1,960.8 million digital-banking transactions, up 37.1%, and 1,365.4 million electronic-money transactions, up 27.0%, in October.

Transactions based on the National Open API Payment Standard continued to increase as adoption broadened. The review also set out plans to strengthen QRIS literacy and merchant education at major tourist destinations to support acceptance of cross-border payments.

An earlier cross-border connection

On 17 November 2023, Bank Indonesia and the Monetary Authority of Singapore launched a separate retail-payment linkage. Their joint announcement said customers of participating institutions could scan merchants' QRIS codes in Indonesia or NETS QR codes in Singapore through existing mobile-banking applications. The central banks said unified codes enabled merchants to accept payments from different participating banks and wallet operators. They identified travellers and small businesses as intended beneficiaries.

The published payment-system framework

Bank Indonesia published its Payment Systems Blueprint 2030 on 1 August 2024. The framework continues the earlier 2025 blueprint and aims to develop a resilient payment system with a consolidative structure in response to a changing strategic environment. Implementation is scheduled for 2025–2030, covering five initiatives: