Bank Indonesia has said that foreign consumer payment applications, like China's Alipay and WeChat that Chinese tourists reportedly used in Bali, are not approved for local use.

The central bank said the applications did not comply with regulations, in particular because they did not have a cooperation with local payment systems.

BI payment system policy executive director Onny Widjanarko said in Jakarta on Thursday that all foreign payment applications, including Alipay and WeChat, were required to comply with Indonesian regulations. “Any payment system should be adjusted to existing regulations,” he said.

Under the National Payment Gateway (GPN) system, any foreign principles involved in retail transactions are required to cooperate with local switching companies.

Onny said foreign payment applications must meet two requirements to be approved for conducting transactions in Indonesia: establish cooperation with a local switching company and be connected to major Indonesian banks.

“So far we have found two cases. [The foreign payment apps] have cooperated with local switching companies, but they are neither connected to nor are cooperating with Book 4 [major] banks,” Onny said as quoted by kompas.com. He also stressed that all transactions in the country were required to use the rupiah.

He said BI had halted any transactions made through foreign payment apps that did not have a cooperation with local companies.

Onny said the central bank would monitor the situation to ensure that all transactions were made through local switching companies in compliance with regulations. (bbn)