SWIFT connects more than 60 high-value payment systems worldwide covering more than 90 countries, including five pan-regional initiatives (TARGET2, BCEAO, BEAC, COMESA and ECCB).
Implementation will start in the first quarter of 2011, pilot bank testing in the third quarter of 2011 and industry-wide testing in first quarter of 2012. Second generation BI-RTGS and BI-SSSS are expected to go live in the third quarter of 2012.
Bank Indonesia director of Accounting and Payment & Settlement System Directorate Ronald Waas said, most of BI-RTGS/BI-SSSS participating banks have been using SWIFT for their cross-border transactions to their correspondent banks for many years. By providing them with SWIFT as the platform to access second Generation BI-RTGS and BI-SSSS, the bank allow them to use a single window and the same standards for both domestic and cross-border transactions.
"This will enable straight-through processing, which in turn will reduce operational errors and increase processing efficiency,” Waas said.
Bank Indonesia will announce the vendor consortium that will develop the new middle-tier system to link with SWIFT by year-end.
Indonesia is the ninth country in the Asia Pacific region to choose SWIFT.