Around 19 Million Merchants Utilizing QRIS: Bank Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) recorded that the number of merchants utilizing its Indonesian Standard Quick Response Code (QRIS) currently stood at 19 million since being launched on August 17, 2019.

Of the total figure, 90 percent are micro, small, and medium enterprises. QRIS makes payments easier, cheaper, and faster, so that all parties are benefited.

"QRIS is one of the many initiatives we have taken to promote financial inclusion," Senior Deputy Governor of BI Destry Damayanti stated at the G20 side event titled "Digital Finance to Support Financial Inclusion" on Saturday.

Damayanti highlighted BI's unwavering readiness to support financial inclusion, starting with the Indonesia Payment Systems Blueprint 2025 in place to open access for millions of people, who are still unreachable by banks and MSMEs through digitalization.

In this era, the digitalization of payment systems has proven to be a game changer. Payment systems are also the backbone for the formation of a new economic ecosystem called the digital and financial economy ecosystem.

She noted that digital economy and finance will be interconnected and integrated with each other. In recent years, technology-driven innovation of payment systems had led to the creation of economic options.

"These economic options are created through new business models, new players, the transformation of consumer behavior, economic landscape, and finance," she pointed out.

In addition, the evolution of payments through digitalization has offered new opportunities, minimized barriers, and lowered transaction costs, she remarked.

As a result, financial services have become more affordable, accessible, and inclusive, including to the current unbanked population and MSMEs that were earlier less familiar with finance and technology.

She emphasized that with wider access, every economic actor has a more equal opportunity to develop and be creative in more inclusive growth.

ANTARA

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