A little step in order to reduce the money supply, XL Tunai (XL Cash) now available to receive top-up from Bank International Indonesia (BII) — both company are owned by Malaysia conglomeration. Cited from Republika, with this cooperation, the BII customers can use electronic banking and ATM to top-up the XL Tunai. Not only from BII ATM, the customers can use the link of ATM Bersama, Prima, or ALTO.

XL Tunai can be used in some merchants that are the XL Tunai partners, including to buy pre-paid credit or to pay the post-paid invoice for XL. You can read the complete information about the XL Tunai on the XL official web.

The telecommunication solution for payment media is getting better by the time. Not only XL but also some other telecommunication operator apply the same system. Even some banks that are actually the official media to do transaction support this system. The development of the technology changes people’s way of transaction. The more mobile the people they will need the application which money in debit/credit cards (EDC) available on their mobile device to do transaction.

In Japan, it is common to use FeliCa which is contactless-based RFID smart card system to do many payment activities by touching the phone to certain device to use the credit. Here, the technology is a step behind that, but some operator give signs that it might be applied in Indonesia soon. Now, contactless SIM card from the biggest operator in Indonesia is already available to shop in many minimarkets in Jakarta.

One thing that should be considered is the regulation. Bank Indonesia is quite strict on applying the regulation to who can be the financial transaction media and their authorization. It is because of the prudence to protect people’s money. We hope that all the party can obey all the regulation to avoid the fraudulences emerged as the bad effect of technology applied.

For now, XL Tunai as payment media is still as micropayment. The limit is 1 million rupiah to 5 million rupiah. If your mobile phone is lost, you can minimalize the lost. We are waiting for the next innovations, including from technology startups with has expertise in this area, to make the transaction easier and to support business activities without going to ATM or to use the cards.

[Image source via Tempo Interaktif]