The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Bank Indonesia have launched a bilateral cross-border QR code payment linkage to facilitate retail transactions between the two nations.
Announced during the Second Governors’ Meeting of the Joint Work Program in Shanghai on June 11, the initiative expands coverage across major merchant networks. It enables two-way digital transactions.
The rollout pushes China UnionPay‘s total network beyond 46 million QR merchants outside the Chinese mainland.
The payment linkage operates under a government-to-government framework guided by both central banks.
UnionPay announced the pilot launch of this partnership in September 2025.
Key industry participants involved in the deployment include China UnionPay, UnionPay International, the Indonesian Payment System Association, Bank of China, and Ant International.
The bilateral network allows travellers to use native digital wallets for international purchases.
Chinese visitors can use the UnionPay app, connected banking applications, and Alipay to scan Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) codes across Indonesia.
Indonesian visitors can also pay UnionPay and Alipay QR merchants across the Chinese mainland.
They can use major digital wallets, including MyBCA, OVO, DANA, GoPay, Mandiri, and ShopeePay.
The framework uses a direct local currency settlement mechanism to reduce reliance on intermediary currencies.
Indonesian wallet users settling transactions within the Chinese mainland are paid directly in renminbi, while Chinese wallet users transacting in Indonesia are settled in Indonesian rupiah.
According to UnionPay, its payment networks are now interoperable across seven out of the 11 ASEAN nations.
The participating organisations stated that they intend to scale this bilateral model to other regions, including Europe and Latin America.
Based on UnionPay’s corporate disclosures from early 2026, transaction volumes for these international wallets within China have doubled year-on-year. Outbound QR payments from Chinese users grew by more than 300% over the same period.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by UnionPay and brilian via Magnific
