JAKARTA- Indonesia’s central bank on Tuesday launched a new retail payment system that its governor said will slash the cost of money transfers and support the country’s booming digital economy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated growth in Indonesia’s digital finance, with digital banking transactions rising 47 percent on a yearly basis in November to reach 3,877 trillion rupiah ($269.52 billion) and e-money transactions up 62 percent to 31.3 trillion rupiah, according to Bank Indonesia’s (BI) data.
The newly launched “BI-Fast” system will allow real-time, secure money transfers of up to 250 million rupiah, at a maximum cost of 2,500 rupiah (17 US cents) per transaction for customers, BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said.
This compares with the cost of the current interbank money transfer for customers using the national payment gateway of 6,500 rupiah per transaction.
