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sers of prepaid cards issued by state-owned banks will be able to start using the products to pay fees at a number of toll-road gates by mid-March, as the lenders prepare to launch a newly integrated system.

Until now, only Bank Mandiri has been providing an electronic payment option for tolls to its prepaid card users under a long-term contract with state-owned toll-road operator Jasa Marga since 2009.

Last year, Mandiri and three other state-run lenders '€“ Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) '€“ signed an agreement to utilize the service together under a new integrated IT system able to read prepaid cards or electronic money (e-money) issued by any of the four banks.

With the deal, the four banks expect users of their prepaid cards to enjoy the same services.

BNI consumer banking director Anggoro Eko Cahyo said the four state banks were currently finalizing technical details for the new system, which is expected to be installed at around 280 toll gates in Jakarta and surrounding areas by June.

'€œThe total target is 1,100 toll gates in [Greater Jakarta] this year, but we hope that we can complete most of the installation before June or the Idul Fitri Islamic holiday,'€ he said in Jakarta over the weekend.

The four state banks were also planning to expand the system outside Jakarta, such as toll gates in Surabaya (East Java), Makassar (South Sulawesi) and Medan (North Sumatra), said Tambok P. Setyawati, BNI'€™s senior executive vice president for digital banking.

With the new function for toll-road payments, Tambok said BNI expected the number of its prepaid cards, called BNI Tapcash, to jump to at least 1 million this year, from 300,000 issued last year.

She added that the bank expected the transaction volume for BNI Tapcash to reach Rp 100 billion (US$7.68 million) this year, from only Rp 15 billion in 2015, which was mainly payments for TransJakarta buses and Jakarta Commuter Line railways.

BRI executive vice president for e-banking Dicky Rozano said previously that the new integrated payment system for toll roads would help the bank increase the number of BRIZZI cards, its prepaid card product, by around 25 percent to 33 percent this year, from 4.2 million users last year.

Meanwhile, BTN retail funding and distribution director Sis Apik Wijayanto said that the bank, which launched its first prepaid card last year, was ready to use the new product in the toll-road e-payment system as it had a co-branding partnership with Mandiri and used the latter'€™s IT platform.

The agreement signed last year, witnessed by State-Owned Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno, was initially prompted by Bank Indonesia (BI) in a revised regulation on e-money, which bans '€œexclusivity'€ in the public services sector, such as toll roads and parking, in a bid to promote fewer cash transactions and increase efficiency.

Regarding the integration, Mandiri senior executive vice president for transaction banking Rico Usthavia Frans said earlier that the bank remained optimistic on adding an additional 2 million prepaid cards this year, increasing by 30 percent from 6.6 million last year.