Jakarta (ANTARA) - Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Destry Damayanti expressed openness to partnering with any country, including the United States (US), to use the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) payment method.

Damayanti made the statement in response to the US government's questioning of trade barriers, including Indonesia's QRIS in the financial sector.

According to the senior deputy governor, collaboration with other countries in terms of QRIS and other fast payments largely depends on mutual readiness between participating countries.

"If both countries are ready, why don't we cooperate?" she remarked at an event on Monday.

In addition, she noted that other non-cash payment instruments, such as credit cards issued by US financial services companies, namely Visa and Mastercard, are still in demand and remain dominant in Indonesia's non-cash payment sector.

"Until now, credit cards with Visa and Mastercard are still dominating in Indonesia. There is no problem with that," she affirmed.

Earlier, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of trade barriers in several countries, including Indonesia.

Citing the USTR document, the US highlighted the use of QRIS through the issuance of BI Regulation No. 21 of 2019.

"U.S. companies, including payment providers and banks, noted concern that during BI’s QR code policymaking process, international stakeholders were neither informed of the nature of the potential changes nor given an opportunity to explain their views on such a system, including how it might be designed to interact most seamlessly with existing payment systems," the USTR wrote in the document.

Besides QRIS, the US also highlighted several other issues considered trade barriers, including the implementation of the National Payment Gateway (GPN) in Indonesia through BI Regulation No. 19/08/2017.

"The regulation imposes a 20 percent foreign equity limitation on firms that wish to obtain a switching license to participate in the NPG, prohibiting the cross-border supply of electronic payment services for domestic retail debit and credit card transactions," the USTR said.

The document then discussed BI Regulation No. 19/10/PADG/2017, which mandates foreign companies to form partnership agreements with licensed Indonesian GPN switching providers to process domestic retail transactions through the GPN.

In its document, the US noted that BI must approve partnership agreements, and the approval also considers whether the foreign partner company supports industrial development in Indonesia, including through technology transfer.

Related news: QRIS Tap revolutionizes payments: 0.3 seconds for transactions

Related news: Minister stresses digital transformation in transportation

Related news: QRIS, e-money transactions exempt from 12 percent VAT: Govt