QRIS Can Be Used for Payments in Singapore

Last week (17/11), Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) inaugurated the implementation of QR payment interconnection between Indonesia and Singapore. This allows users or customers from participating financial institutions to make retail payments by scanning the QRIS or NETS displayed by merchant in Singapore and Indonesia.

The inauguration of this collaboration was launched by BI Governor Perry Warjiyo and MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon at the 2023 Singapore Fintech Festival.

BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said that payment interconnection QR crosses national borders between Indonesia and Singapore will encourage faster, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive payments between countries, especially for MSMEs. This initiative is a follow-up to ASEAN member countries' commitment to National Payment Connectivity cooperation (Regional Payment Connectivity/RPC) and implementation of the Indonesian Payment System Blueprint 2025.

“We also announced another strategic initiative to encourage wider use of local currencies in bilateral transactions through the Local Currency Transactions framework (Local Currency Transactions/LCT) which is expected to be implemented in 2024," said Perry in an official statement.

He continued, through the implementation of this LCT framework, the QR payment interconnection initiative between countries will later use direct quotations of local currency exchange rates provided directly by banks. Appointed Cross Currency Dealer (ACCD).

MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon added that the QRIS-QR NETS payment interconnection will encourage activity E-commerce between countries and tourist spending in both countries by individuals and small businesses. In the future, the local currency settlement cooperation framework by BI and MAS will complete QR payment interconnection through the facility of using Indonesian Rupiah and Singapore Dollars for settlement of payment transactions between countries.

"This initiative marks Singapore's achievements in strengthening cross-border payment interconnections which continue to develop with key partner countries in the region," he stressed.

This interconnection of QR payments between countries is an important achievement of BI and MAS' efforts to encourage integration of the digital economic and financial ecosystem, as well as improving economic relations between Indonesia and Singapore.

With increased payment convenience, this interconnection is considered capable of expanding market access for business actors in both countries, especially micro and small businesses, through increasing the number of new consumers. This initiative will also benefit tourists from both countries as tourism increases again post-pandemic – in the first half of 2023, there were 600 thousand arrivals from Singapore to Indonesia, and 1,1 million tourists from Indonesia to Singapore.

How to use QRIS

In its social media account, Bank Indonesia explains the steps for scanning QRIS in Singapore and Indonesia, which are actually almost the same. However, when scanning QRIS in Singapore, there is a value confirmation page or the price is stated in rupiah. Here are the steps:

1. Open the payment application
2. Scan or scan QR Singapore
3. Enter the amount in Singapore dollars
4. Confirm destination and nominal value in Rupiah
5. Enter the PIN
6. If successful, a message will appear: transaction successful.

Currently, QRIS in Singapore can only be done through certain payment applications, including: BCA, BRI, BSI, Bank Permata, CIMB Niaga, Bank Mega, Bank Sinarmas, BPD Bali, DANA, Netzme.

BI also announced merchant Singapore accepts QRIS, namely NETS QR or SGQR and SGQR+ with the NETS logo. SGQR can be said to be Singapore's version of QRIS. Meanwhile NETS QR is a QR code solution operated by Singapore's electronic payment network, NETS.

In this way, Singapore tourists who are in Indonesia can also make transactions throughout merchant QRIS via their bank application. The Singapore payment applications that can scan QRIS are UOB and OCBC.

In the latest data, BI noted that as of June 2023, the number of QRIS merchants had reached 26,7 million with a total number of QRIS users of 37 million. This number has reached 82% of the total target of 45 million users in 2023. Of the total merchants, 91,4% of them are MSMEs.

In line with this development, the number of QRIS transactions throughout 2022 was recorded at 1,03 billion transactions, or grew by 86% (year on year).

In its development, QRIS has had various features to make it easier for users and merchants, including QRIS Without Face to Face (TTM) (2020), QRIS Consumer Presented Mode (CPM) (2021), and QRIS Between Countries (2022). Next, immediately make it official QRIS Cash Withdrawal feature, Transfer and Cash Deposit (TUNTAS) after the trial period has been completed.