Mastercard has announced it is to partner with Indonesian payment switching firm PT Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis (Artajasa) in a bid to support and enhance the country’s national payment gateway (NPG) ecosystem.
Through the partnership, Mastercard is said to be applying its safety, security, fraud monitoring & scoring services for all domestic debit card transactions whilst also focus on improving Artajasa’s capacity and capability in payment transaction processing.
Bayu Hanantasena, president director of PT Artajasa Pembayaran Elektronis, said: “With this co-operation, Artajasa will be the first NPG Switch Institution to offer an additional world-class safety and security layer to debit card transactions in Indonesia.
“We are confident that through our partnership with Mastercard, we would be able to offer our customers the latest technology to provide them with safe and seamless payment experiences.”
The partnership is to be the first in the NPG ecosystem between a domestic switching company and an international payments network to receive Bank Indonesia’s official approval.
Furthermore, the collaboration reaffirms both companies “long-term commitment” to the country’s National Non-Cash Movement in its Indonesia’s Payment System (IPS) 2025 Visions strategy.
“In the raise of the global economy uncertainty, the government commits to always push the economy growth on the basis of export and investment,” commented Enggartiasto Lukita, Minister of Trade Republic of Indonesia.
“We welcome this cooperation which signifies a closer and constructive trade and investment relations between Indonesia and the United States in general, and especially in payment systems and financial inclusion development sector.
“With the continuous market-friendly policy reforms we have undertaken, and will continue to undertake, I believe Indonesia will continue to be a lucrative investment destination for global corporations.”
NPG switching institutions, such as Artajasa, are able to partner with a maximum of two non-NPG switching providers; the same regulations also apply to Mastercard to and NPG switching providers in compliance with Bank Indonesia’s regulation.
Firstly the two firms will focus on processing and managing debit card transactions within Indonesia however in the announcement it was revealed in the future, the partnership “may scale to include processing transactions across other digital payments environments, such as e-commerce.”
Safdar Khan, Division President for Indonesia, Malaysia & Brunei, Mastercard added: “Mastercard is honored to be the first and only international payments network to successfully cooperate with a NPG Switching Institution.
“We fully support Bank Indonesia’s vision of increasing the penetration of digital payments in the country. The addition of safety tools to the NPG will increase the confidence of consumers and merchants to use debit cards when making and accepting payment for everyday purchases.
“Through our co-operation with Artajasa, Mastercard plans to introduce additional innovations like tokenization to deliver an extra layer of security to online and face-to-face cashless transactions. Interoperability within the NPG ecosystem means that Mastercard will also be able to add value to all inter-bank Mastercard debit card transactions.”
