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

Attending the launch ceremony, Bank Indonesia (BI) GovernorPerry Warjiyo said that the QRIS expansion allows users from either country touse the QR code standard managed by BI for payments in either country, therebydoing away with the need to exchange money or carry a credit card. The integration of QRIS allows same-chain sellers in bothcountries to be paid through either system with a QR code. Governor Perry added that the integration of the payment systembrings convenience to the people of the two countries because the number oftraffic and transactions between these two neighbouring countries is often veryhigh. In 2022,  about 1.03 millionMalaysian tourists traveled to Indonesia, accounting for 19% of foreigntourists to Indonesia, while in the previous year, 480,700 arrivals werereported, just behind Timor-Leste. Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said thecooperation will enable “fast, secure and cost-efficient payments”. Malaysia and Indonesia will continue to discuss to expand thelinkage to support instant fund transfers, she said, adding that it willbenefit Malaysians and Indonesians who live, study or work in the other countryto send money back home more easily and cheaply. From the Indonesian side, the arrangement involves more than 20financial institutions, including Bank Sinarmas, Bank Permata, Bank CentralAsia 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 arrangementwith Thailand, and the government is looking to similar deals with Singaporeand the Philippines. In March, BI opened the possibility of further expanding thecooperation to Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos. The QRIS is a QR code developed by the Bank of Indonesia and theIndonesian Payment Systems Association to perform cashless transactions andpayments in Indonesia. As of March, the total value of QRIS transactions amounted to15.35 trillion Rp (1.04 million USD) in almost 135 million transactions. TheIndonesian government is looking to reach 45 million QRIS users and 1 billiontransactions this year./.