Heaptalk, Jakarta — In response to the United States’ statement that Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) and National Payment Gateway (GPN) hinder trade, Hera F. Haryn, Executive Vice President of Corporate Communication and Social Responsibility at Bank Central Asia (BCA), emphasized that banking supports the development of Indonesia’s national payment system.
“As part of our commitment to regulatory policies, BCA provides QRIS-based payment infrastructure to facilitate public transactions,” she said.
BCA also supports the implementation of Tap-to-Pay QRIS (QRIS Tap), which utilizes Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This feature is available in the myBCA app (minimum version 2.2.0) under the NFC Pay menu, specifically for Android users with NFC capability. “Currently, BCA’s QRIS Tap is available at over 324,000 merchants,” Hera added.
The 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report, released by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) on March 31, 2025, criticized QRIS and GPN. QRIS is regulated under Bank Indonesia (BI) Regulation No. 21/2019, which sets a national standard for all QR-based payments in Indonesia.
According to the USTR, US companies—including payment service providers and banks—raised concerns about the QRIS policy formulation process, arguing that BI did not sufficiently involve international stakeholders in discussions, particularly regarding system integration with global payment networks.
The USTR also criticized GPN policies, governed under BI Regulation No. 19/8/2017, which mandates that all domestic debit and credit retail transactions be processed through BI-licensed GPN switching institutions.
Additionally, the regulation imposes a 20% foreign ownership cap for companies seeking a GPN switching license. The US also highlighted requirements for foreign firms to partner with local GPN switching providers and obtain BI approval for such agreements, granted only if foreign partners support domestic industry development, including through technology transfer.
The USTR report further criticized BI’s Payment System Blueprint, which limits foreign ownership in non-bank payment service operators (front-end companies) to 85%, with voting rights capped at 49%. For back-end payment system operators, foreign ownership remains restricted to 20%.
“US payment companies worry these new policies will restrict access for US electronic payment options,” the USTR report stated. It also noted BI’s mandate for credit card transactions to be processed via GPN and the requirement for local governments to issue and use GPN-linked credit cards.
