Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), on Tuesday (Dec. 21) officially launched a retail payment system called BI-Fast.

BI-Fast operates around the clock, in real time, fast, low-cost, safe and reliable, said BI’s Governor Perry Warjiyo at the BI-Fast launch event on Tuesday.

This payment system accelerates the digitization of the national financial economy, as well as integrates industrial ecosystems and end-to-end payment systems covering banking, fintech (financial technology), and e-commerce.

BI-Fast is one of the digitalization reform of the national payment system as contained in the 2025 Indonesia payment system blueprint which was launched in May 2019.

Perry Warjiyo said that the BI-Fast price scheme is quite economical at 19 rupiahs (some 0.0013 U.S. dollars) for participants, and from participants to customers a maximum of 2,500 rupiahs (some 0.18 U.S. dollars) per transaction.

At this stage, 21 banks are ready to provide BI-Fast services and then in the 4th week of January 2022 the central bank will be re-launched the system for other banks and non-bank institutions.

"We hope that all players in the payment system industry will join and take advantage of BI-Fast to be able to serve people better and better," Perry Warjiyo said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window