Bank Indonesia Explains Why Only One Foreign Bank Joins BI-Fast

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Bank Indonesia (BI) has accepted 77 banks as participants of BI-Fast, the national retail payment system that is fast, non-stop, and costs a maximum of only Rp2,500 per transfer. However, only one of those banks is foreign, Citibank NA.

The central bank's head of the BI Payment System Organizing Department, Ida Nuryanti, said that Citibank became one of the first participants of BI-Fast during the first batch of membership on December 21 last year. SO far, no other foreign banks have joined.

"There is only one foreign bank and one non-bank financial institution that joined, which is Indonesia Central Securities Depository (KSEI)," Ida said in a media briefing on Tuesday, August 30.

Ida said that the lack of foreign banks joining BI-Fast was not due to lack of interest, but more because the banks' own service expansion procedures, which are quite complicated from an administrative point of view, making the process quite lengthy.

"For foreign banks to expand their services, they have to be directed by their headquarters, which requires an administrative process," said Ida.

Ida said that foreign banks have only started to pledge their commitments to participate in BI-Fast during the fifth batch of acceptance of participants, during which three foreign banks will join.

Arrijal Rachman

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