CIMB Niaga partners Liquid Group to support Bank Indonesia’s QR Code standardisation trial

• Indonesian travellers may use local payment apps to make purchases at Changi Airport
• Looking at opening the Singapore – Indonesia corridor for QR payments

PT BANK CIMB Niaga Tbk (CIMB Niaga) and Liquid Group announced a partnership to spearhead cross-border QR payment acceptance between Singapore and Indonesia.

The partnership was initiated through their joint participation in Bank Indonesia’s Quick Response Indonesian Standard (QRIS) trial for cross-border payment transactions.

The QRIS trial was conducted on May 23, 2019 using the CIMB Niaga’s digital banking product “Go Mobile” carried out at selected merchants located at Terminal 3, Singapore Changi Airport.

Slated to launch in the third quarter of 2019, CIMB Niaga and Liquid Group will enable the acceptance of participating QRIS compliant payment apps and e-wallets at Singapore Changi Airport through Liquid’s integrated QR payments and marketing infrastructure launched in April this year.

CIMB Niaga and Liquid Group have successfully completed their proof-of-concept with CIMB Niaga’s Go Mobile application and QRIS compliant payment apps and e-wallets.

With the integration of Bank Indonesia’s QRIS code into Liquid Group’s cross-border payments platform, Indonesian travellers will be able to use their preferred local payment apps to make purchases at Changi Airport.

Furthermore, CIMB Niaga and Liquid Group will be looking at opening the Singapore – Indonesia corridor for QR payments, enabling the acceptance of Singapore’s local payment apps and e-wallets at participating merchants in Indonesia.

CIMB Niaga Consumer Banking director Lani Darmawan, commented: “We are honoured to be the first bank in Indonesia given the opportunity by Bank Indonesia to conduct a cross-border QRIS payment trial. We believe that this initiative will greatly benefit our customers who can enjoy the ease of transacting abroad, starting with Singapore’s Changi Airport, using our Go Mobile QR app.

“This also offers a perfect solution to our customers who may not travel aboard with credit cards or large amounts of cash. We see great potential in the adoption of QRIS-supported cross-border payments with an increasing number of people travelling aboard.”

Lani added:” The Go Mobile application will offer customers an attractive and competitive exchange rate at the point of payment, with the option to draw funds from their savings accounts, e-wallets and credit cards.”

Liquid Group chief executive officer Jeremy Tan, commented: “Accelerating the adoption of QR payments across borders is our key mission and we appreciate the vote of confidence given to us by CIMB Niaga in using Liquid Group’s integrated payments and marketing infrastructure at Changi Airport for their QRIS trial.

“Further to opening up the Singapore – Hong Kong corridor for QR payments last month, we are thrilled to now offer Indonesian consumers the convenience and benefit of cross-border QR payments starting with those stopping over at Singapore Changi Airport.

“We look forward to expanding the acceptance of QR payment apps and e-wallets from both Singapore and Indonesia on our cross-border payment platform.”

Liquid Group and Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited (Jetco) has also announced a partnership to enable cross-border QR payment acceptance in Singapore and Hong Kong earlier in May, a month after the launch of the world’s first integrated QR payments and marketing infrastucture at Changi Airport back in April 2019.

Bank Indonesia (BI) has launched its national standard QR code (QRIS) on May 27, 2019. The QRIS code system aims to universalise cashless payments in Indonesia, allowing users to transfer funds from one payment service to any other service within BI's ecosystem.

QRIS allows QR code facilitated payments in Indonesia to be interconnected and interoperable through a single standardised code. The QRIS code is based on the Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) QR code international standard.

The central bank is working with financial institutions, interbank network providers and e-wallets such as LinkAja, Dana and Ovo to introduce QRIS in the second half of 2019.