Malaysian Grab led the Series B Round worth of US$100 million for LinkAja, the financial technology apps owned by the state-owned enterprises - Photo by the Company

JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) – Hungary’ mobile transactions solutions provider Cellumʼ secure wallet platform to be unified with LinkAja e-money system, developed by PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), the company chief executive told the Budapest Business Journal.

János Kóka, CEO of Cellum Global at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona said, said that unit of PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk (IDX: TLKM) strives not only to make the most of synergic advantages of electronic financial services from various state-owned enterprises, but will also extend the LinkAja ecosystem with various new features and services in the future.

As part of that ecosystem, Cellum says that it is ready to provide the transaction platform, which, in addition to the LinkAja e-money funding source, allows users to access other payment instruments like secure card data storage, fast and easy merchant integration, user management as well as further value-added services.

On Feb. 22, Telkomsel’ TCash officially changes to LinkAja, as an electric payment (e-payment). Director of PT Fintek Karya Nusantara (Finarya) Danu Wicaksana stressed that the presence of LinkAja is expected to further accelerate financial inclusion and the formation of a cashless society carried out by the government in the National Non-Cash Movement.

Bank Indonesia has launched the Quick Response (QR) code payment standardization to support cashless payment in the archipelago. The standardization is an initial stage to control the safety of this cashless payment before the central government issues the official regulation of QR code.
The companies that already obtained the permission from the central bank using QR code need to comply with the standard. There are 12 companies that have obtained permission from the central bank using the QR code including Go-Pay, TCash, OVO, BNI Yap!, and BRI. The standardization will connect each other of these 12 companies.
The central bank has appointed the Indonesia Payment System Association, an institution established by Bank Indonesia involving representations of all payment system industry, to set the standard. The agency is authorized in technical scope to formulate rules in the payment system industry.
The QR code standardization and regulation will be part of the National Payment Gateway program that launched last year. The NPG is an electronic payment transaction system incorporating instruments such as ATM cards, electronic money, and credit cards, allowing customers to carry out secure non-cash transactions from any bank in Indonesia.
Indonesia is, in fact, lagging behind other developing countries, such as India, Bangladesh or even Palestine, which have already set in place their own integrated cashless payment.

The central bank also has put a 49 percent limit on foreign ownership in companies that offer e-money services in a bid to better regulate such services amid growing interest in financial technology. The limit was set by central bank to all e-money issuer companies, both operating and newly handing permits.

The rules said, every company offering in electronic money services also must obtain a permit from BI. The new foreign ownership limit applies only to new investment, or to any existing firm who is changing ownership.

Based on central bank regulations, e-money businesses should secure a license from BI for various payment system service providers such as: Principal, Issuer, Acquirer, Clearing Operator and Final Settlement Operator.

by Linda Silaen, Email: linda.silaen@theinsiderstories.com

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