Bank Indonesia launches real-time payments infrastructure to broaden financial inclusion
Bank Indonesia (BI), the country’s central bank, has launched Bank Indonesia Fast Payment (BI-FAST), a real-time, 24/7 payments infrastructure designed to boost the country’s economic recovery and broaden financial inclusion.
The central bank hopes BI-FAST will boost the economy
BI-FAST is a payment system infrastructure which can be accessed through mobile apps in order to facilitate and streamline retail payment transactions for Indonesians.
BI says it will form the “backbone” of a broader retail payment system infrastructure.
BI has worked with industry players to implement BI-FAST and to integrate it with the nation’s Digital Financial Economy (EKD).
The central bank says implementation will be carried out in stages to ensure all payment channels are fully prepared for their respective customers.
BI governor Perry Warjiyo says BI-FAST forms part of the Indonesia Payment System Blueprint (BSPI) 2025 initiative, designed to create a digital-first financial ecosystem that supports financial inclusion in the country.
“The development of BI-FAST is an important milestone in reforming and digitalising the national payment system as part of the implementation of BSPI 2025,” Warjiyo says.
“I hope that the launch of BI-FAST will integrate the payment system industry ecosystem end-to-end from digital banking, fintech, e-commerce, and consumers, encourage financial economic inclusion, and encourage national economic recovery.”
