When a warung owner in Yogyakarta scans a customer’s phone these days, the payment hurtles through Bank Indonesia’s Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) and lands in her account seconds later. That ubiquity is by design: the scheme has signed up 56 million users, conducted 2.6 billion transactions representing Rp 262 trillion (approximately US$15.5 billion) in value, and recently recorded a 169% year-over-year increase. It now reaches small businesses and low-income groups in Indonesia, defining everyday commerce. Yet Jakarta’s leading fintech is facing criticism.
In its 2025 National Trade Estimate report, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) argues that QRIS—and the wider National Payment Gateway—locks foreign players out by capping ownership (20% for switching, 49% of voting shares for e-wallets), forcing local data processing and, crucially, leaving international stakeholders neither informed nor consulted during rule-making.
What’s Really at Stake?
For Indonesia, QRIS is more than a payment standard; it is a digital public utility woven into a national sovereignty narrative. Officials point out that U.S. schemes still dominate high-value card spend, while QRIS levels the playing field for micro-merchants who could never afford a POS terminal. Bank Indonesia’s senior deputy governor Destry Damayanti even extended an olive branch: “If America is ready, we’re ready—why not collaborate?” Cooperation, she stressed, would not come at the expense of local control.
Still, continued tensions with Washington could slow QRIS’s rollout in countries like India and South Korea, despite its successful integration with Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Its label as a trade barrier also risks limiting overseas opportunities for Indonesian small businesses, even though the system was designed to streamline domestic and cross-border transactions.
Behind the diplomatic smile lies a hard-nosed strategy. QRIS is already interoperable with Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore; technical testing is in late stages with China, India, and South Korea, and a UnionPay pilot is pencilled in for Indonesia’s Independence Day, 17 August 2025.
Every new corridor cements Jakarta as the network’s gravitational centre. That growing hub status makes QRIS not only a source of national pride, but also a geopolitical asset in Southeast Asia’s digital economy. Its expansion reflects Indonesia’s ambition to shape, not just adopt, global fintech norms.
Washington’s Leverage—And Its Limits
The trade spat is part of a broader negotiation over proposed 32% U.S. tariffs on Indonesian goods. During April talks in Washington, Economic Chief Airlangga Hartarto confirmed that national payment systems and QR code standards are on the bargaining table, even as he demanded a fair relationship that respects Indonesia’s policy space.
American complaints do land on sympathetic ears among some Indonesian fintechs, who privately grumble that local-processing mandates increase cost and latency for cross-border settlements. Yet political reality favours the status quo. QRIS underwrites a populist promise—an instant, cash-lite economy owned by Indonesians. No minister wants to be remembered for diluting that pledge at the behest of foreign card giants.
The Road Ahead
- Negotiated tweaks, not a U-turn. Jakarta could offer procedural transparency—formal comment periods, perhaps a higher foreign-ownership ceiling for purely back-end tech suppliers—while preserving local switching control.
- ASEAN cover fire. With Singapore and Malaysia already live on QR linkages, any U.S. WTO challenge risks alienating multiple Southeast Asian governments at once.
- Time-based relief. Bank Indonesia’s own Payments Blueprint 2025 contemplates revisiting caps once domestic rails mature; Washington’s best bet may be to wait out the clock.
A New Chapter of Global Trade
QRIS has evolved from a domestic payment tool into a strategic pillar of Indonesia’s fintech agenda. While the U.S. may raise concerns—even hint at trade penalties—Jakarta is unlikely to retreat from an infrastructure that handles millions of daily transactions and is gaining regional traction. The friction reveals a wider pattern: as with chips and minerals, payment rails and infrastructure are now strategic assets. In this new era, digital standards are no longer just technical—they’re political.