Ilona Estherina, Jakarta – Bank Indonesia (BI) has reported rapid growth in payments using the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS), while transactions made with debit cards have declined. QRIS usage has surged by 186 percent year-on-year, reaching 689.07 million transactions.
The use of barcode-based payment services has continued to grow steadily since it was first introduced five years ago.
"The acceleration of QRIS adoption has been extraordinary. There are now 35.1 million merchants using QRIS," BI Deputy Governor Filianingsih Hendarta said in a press conference on Wednesday, December 18.
As of November 2024, the number of users of this payment system has reached 55.02 million people. Filianingsih said that this figure has met the central bank's target.
At the same time, the volumes of ATM debit card transactions have decreased by 10.9 percent compared to the previous month, totaling 562.75 million transactions. In October, ATM debit card payments amounted to 558.8 million transactions, also showing an 11.4 percent decline from the previous month.
Filianingsih emphasized that Bank Indonesia will continue to promote the adoption of QRIS. By 2025, BI aims to reach 58 million QRIS users. "While we haven't set a target for merchants this year, next year we aim to have 40 million merchants using QRIS," she said.
BI is also developing the QRIS Tap NFC (Near-Field Communication) system, with which users will no longer need to use their phone's camera to scan. Instead, they can use the NFC feature on their smartphone by tapping it on a payment terminal.
This new system is expected to be used for various types of payments. For now, however, it is being developed primarily for public transportation. "If everything goes well, we hope to implement this by the first quarter of next year," Filianingsih added.