OVERVIEW

As part of the implementation of Indonesia’s Payment System Blueprint 2025, Bank Indonesia (“BI”) has revealed its intention to launch BI-FAST in December 2021. In essence, BI-FAST comprises a whole new payment-system infrastructure that will hopefully accelerate retail payments through various instruments and channels on a real-time, 24/7 basis.[1]

BI has further claimed that BI-FAST will be able to settle payments within 25 seconds through a tariff of just Rp.2,500 per transaction. These characteristics contrast sharply with the BI National Clearing System (Sistem Kliring Nasional BI – “SKNBI”), which requires up to an hour in order to settle transactions and which imposes a similar but ultimately more expensive Rp.2,900 tariff per transaction. Indeed, BI-FAST is ultimately expected to replace SKNBI.[2]