Penetration of Visa, Mastercard vs QRIS in Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Destry Damayanti, believes that the use of Visa and Mastercard credit cards in Indonesia is still high. She made this statement in response to the complaints from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding the implementation of the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS).

"So far, Visa and Mastercard, which are always in competition, are still dominant. So, there is actually no issue," Destry said at a Financial Education event for Indonesian Migrant Workers at Dhanapala Building, Jakarta, on Monday, April 21, 2025.

Previously, USTR issued the National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report on Foreign Trade Barriers 2025 on Monday, March 31, 2025. In its report, USTR highlighted QRIS regulated in the Member Regulation of the BI Board of Governors Number 21/18/PADG/2019 on the Implementation of the National Standard Quick Response Code for Payments.

So, how is the growth of Visa, Mastercard, and QRIS in Indonesia?

Visa and Mastercard

According to Bank DBS Indonesia's website, credit cards were first introduced to the country in the 1980s. At that time, Bank Duta collaborated with Visa and Mastercard to introduce credit cards for the first time in Indonesia.

BI stated that the value of transactions using Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards, debit cards, and credit cards in May 2022 increased by 5.43 percent annually to Rp 630.9 trillion. In the following two years, in July 2024, BI reported that credit card transactions continued to grow, reaching 20.92 percent annually with 114.31 million transactions.

Visa's net income globally reached US$35.9 billion, or around Rp 574 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp 16,000) in 2024, increasing by 10 percent from the previous year. Furthermore, the total processed transactions within Visa's network reached 233 billion transactions, up by 10 percent from the previous period.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2025, Mastercard recorded a net income of US$7.3 billion, rising by 14 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Furthermore, the net profit in the first quarter of 2025 was at the level of US$3.3 billion, increasing by 9 percent.

In Indonesia, Visa credit cards are available through acquirer institutions, including Bank Bukopin, Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank CIMB Niaga, Bank Danamon, Bank Mandiri, Bank Mega, Bank MNC, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Panin, Bank Pembangunan Daerah Sumatera Selatan and Bangka Belitung (Bank Sumsel Babel), Bank Permata, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Sinarmas, and Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN).

Meanwhile, the issuer institutions for Mastercard include ANZ Indonesia, Bank Danamon, Bank Mandiri, BNI, Bank of China, Bank Permata, BRI, Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI), Bank Bukopin, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank, Bank MNC, Bank OCBC NISP, Bank Panin, Bank Nationalnobu, Bank Sinarmas, BCA, Bank CIMB Niaga, Rabobank, Bank Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank UOB Indonesia.

Based on Bank Mandiri's 2024 Annual Report, as of December 2024, the active users of Mandiri Credit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, and JCB) reached 2.2 million cards, growing by 8 percent annually. Meanwhile, the outstanding Mandiri Credit Card reached Rp 19.3 trillion, increasing by 15.4 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, which was Rp 16.7 trillion.

QRIS

Meanwhile, QRIS was first launched by BI on the 74th Anniversary of Indonesia on Saturday, August 17, 2019. Subsequently, QRIS began to be widely implemented in Indonesia on Wednesday, January 1, 2020.

In the first three months since its national implementation in 2020, the Indonesian Payment Systems Association (ASPI) stated that the total volume of QRIS transactions reached 124.11 million with a transaction value of Rp 8.21 trillion.

The following year, in the first quarter of 2021, the volume of QRIS transactions reached 374.69 million, a growth of 201.9 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. Additionally, the growth is also reflected in the total transaction value, reaching Rp 27.63 trillion, an increase of 236.72 percent.

Most recently, as of the first quarter of 2025, national QRIS transactions have reached 56.28 million users and 38.1 million stores/businesses, of which 93 percent are micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The total transactions reached 2.62 billion with a value of Rp 262 trillion.

Continuing to innovate, on Friday, March 14, 2025, BI launched QRIS Tap. QRIS Tap is a near field communication (NFC)-based payment service that allows users to tap their smartphones to the scanner when making payments for purchases, commuter trains, or MRT.

As of April 16, 2025, QRIS Tap recorded a transaction value of Rp 3.24 billion. More specifically, BI reported that the volume of QRIS Tap transactions in the same period was 42.9 million transactions involving 20.8 million users and 1.44 million stores using the service.

Anastasya Lavenia Y contributed to the writing of this article.

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