Celios: KKI Challenge Is Not Only Cost, but Access

The Indonesia Credit Card (KKI) is considered to have an opportunity to compete with foreign-principal credit cards in domestic transactions. However, the success of KKI in expanding its usage is determined not only by transaction costs, but also by the ease of public access to credit card services.

Director of Digital Economy at the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), Nailul Huda, said that KKI essentially moves credit transaction processing from foreign switchers to the national network.

“Actually, like the National Payment Gateway (GPN), KKI only moves credit transaction processing from foreign switchers to national ones,” Huda told Republika on Tuesday (18/8/2026).

According to Huda, credit transactions have so far been dominated by foreign switchers such as Mastercard and Visa. Like GPN, the use of KKI is also limited to domestic transactions.

“So for domestic transaction purposes, I think KKI can compete. The switching price should also be cheaper when using KKI compared to foreign private ones,” he said.

However, Huda assessed that the need for Visa and Mastercard will remain because people use credit cards for transactions abroad.

“The problem is that people who apply for credit cards usually use them abroad. This means the need to use Visa and Mastercard will still exist,” he said.

According to Huda, the main challenge for KKI actually lies in public access to credit cards. So far, the credit card application process is considered difficult and takes quite a long time.

“Access to credit cards has been difficult for the public. Some take three weeks, some are rejected. That is why they turn to BNPL, or paylater,” he said.

Huda assessed that KKI needs to offer easier access if it wants to expand credit card usage, particularly to the lower-middle segment of society. However, this ease must still be accompanied by quality credit assessment so that expanded access does not increase the risk of default.

“When wanting to expand financial sector coverage to lower-middle segment customers, KKI must be able to compete by making access easier. However, this must be balanced with assessment quality so that high defaults do not occur,” he stressed.