According to a report
by the Jakarta Post, the Indonesian central bank Bank Indonesia (BI) is ready
for second phase of the National Payment Gateway (NPG), locally known as
Gerbang Pembayaran Nasional (GPN).
It was quoted that BI said the Indonesian Government is on
track with its preparations to launch the second phase of the NPG, which will
allow lenders to cut cross-bank transaction costs through more efficient
processes.
On
Monday, in Jakarta, BI Director for Electronics and Financial inclusion Mr Pungky
Purnomo Wibowo said that the central bank had established the transaction
standards and the fees to be charged to consumers for bank transactions.
The
transaction standards are needed for the implementation of the planned
Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) system to be implemented on toll roads, which means
drivers will no longer have to tap their cards at toll gates to pay the tolls.
In
addition to the smoother inter-bank transactions, the NPG’s second phase will
also provide payment facilities for 20 main utilities, including electricity
and phone bills, Pungky added.
"BI
will arrange which parties will be in charge for these utility payments,"
he said.
The
first phase of the NPG, which was launched by the central bank in
December last year, included infrastructure sharing by a number of banks to
cut the cost of interbank transactions as well as cashless payment for toll
road users.
In
the first phase, a consortium called National Electronic Transaction Provider
(PTEN) was established by 4 local interbank switching companies to manage the
infrastructure sharing.
At
the same time, 4 main e-money issuers PT Bank Mandiri, PT Bank Central Asia
(BCA), PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), and PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) signed
an agreement for their e-money interoperability.
According
to the Bank’s regulation
on NPG, NPG is developed to be an interconnected and interoperable ecosystem
to make payment infrastructure safer, more efficient, and more reliable.
It aims to extend public acceptance to cashless
payment transactions by using retail payment instruments and to become an
integral part of Bank Indonesia’s efforts to facilitate national cashless
movement.
