The Indonesian market remains heavily cash-reliant with limited awareness of electronic payments and inadequate payment infrastructure. However, the country is making gradual progress to reduce cash dependence, with card payments value set to increase from IDR639.9 trillion (US$44.5bn) in 2019 to IDR821.2 trillion (US$57.1bn) in 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, ‘Indonesia Cards & Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2023’, reveals that similar growth could be seen in the card payment volume as well, from 1.0 billion in 2019 to 1.4 billion in 2023.

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Ravi Sharma, Banking and Payments Lead Analyst at GlobalData, explains: “The government initiatives, including the introduction of cash transaction limits, launch of branchless banking, electronic payment awareness campaigns and licensing banking correspondents to provide financial access in rural areas all have supported the growth of payments card market in Indonesia.”

To enhance the security of the country’s payment system and boost payment card usage, the country’s central bank ‘Bank Indonesia’ mandated that all ATM and debit cards must be migrated to EMV standard with a six-digit PIN by 31 December 2021.

Sharma concludes: “Improving payments infrastructure, lowering of card acceptance cost, improving payment security and convenience with adoption of EMV and contactless technologies, and growth in e-commerce market are all anticipated to support the Indonesian payment card market growth going forward.”