QRIS: Indonesia’s Digital Payment Revolution That Shook the World — Even Donald Trump

JatimVoice.com – In a surprising turn of global digital economics, Indonesia’s homegrown payment system, QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard), has not only become a runaway success but also stirred concern in global financial giants — including Visa, Mastercard, and even figures like Donald Trump.

Source: rubeq.id

Launched in 2020 as a nationwide QR code standard, QRIS connects all payment applications in Indonesia. From small street vendors to large retailers, merchants now only need one QR code to receive digital payments from Gopay, OVO, Dana, ShopeePay, and mobile banking apps. This seamless and inclusive ecosystem quickly gained traction.

In 2020, QRIS recorded 124 million transactions worth Rp8 trillion. Fast forward to 2024, and it skyrocketed to 6.24 billion transactions worth Rp659 trillion. Over 55 million users and 36 million merchants — mostly MSMEs — now actively use QRIS. That’s a staggering scale, making Indonesia’s QR adoption possibly the largest in Southeast Asia, even surpassing countries like India (UPI), Brazil (PIX), and Thailand (PromptPay).

QRIS’ rapid growth and local-first model triggered alarm in the United States. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) formally protested, claiming QRIS and Indonesia’s GPN (National Payment Gateway) were stifling competition from American firms such as Visa and Mastercard. The worry? Indonesia is shifting control from foreign monopolies to domestic infrastructure.

Before QRIS, Visa and Mastercard dominated Indonesia’s card-based payments — controlling 57% and 26% of the market respectively. Since QRIS, those shares have dropped to 38% and 24%. In 2024, QRIS transactions reached $43 billion, slowly closing in on Visa and Mastercard’s combined dominance.

What sets QRIS apart? It allows full interoperability between local apps and is far cheaper. For example, transactions below Rp500,000 using QRIS are free for MSMEs — a massive contrast to the typical 2% merchant fees charged by international card companies.

Beyond numbers, QRIS embodies a national strategy. It was part of Bank Indonesia’s 2025 Payment System Blueprint, planned in May 2019, and launched on 17 August 2019 — Indonesia’s Independence Day. QRIS uses international EMV standards, ensuring global compatibility while staying domestically controlled.

The project was a collaborative effort among Bank Indonesia, ASPI (Indonesia’s Payment System Association), fintech companies, state banks, and e-wallets. Everyone from BCA, Mandiri, BRI, and BNI to Gopay, OVO, Dana, and ShopeePay joined forces — a rare display of gotong royong (mutual cooperation) in the national digital agenda.

And yet, herein lies the danger. With such success, comes political interest. As QRIS gains fame, there’s a real risk of political hijacking — with opportunists scrambling to claim credit or turn it into a policy bargaining chip. The project’s biggest threat isn’t foreign protests — it’s domestic politics.

Even now, QRIS is expanding with QRIS Tap, an NFC-based system that cuts payment time to just 0.3 seconds. This new frontier could make QRIS even more ubiquitous — from social aid disbursement to subsidy distribution. But it also poses risks of misuse, particularly with sensitive transaction data.

If Indonesia holds strong, QRIS could redefine digital payment sovereignty and become a model for the Global South. But if political interests interfere, its future could be compromised.