Global payment provider Visa is in discussions with Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Gojek to bring a pay later service in the platform and new installment payment capabilities to reach more customers, Visa Indonesia president director Riko Abdurrahman said.
Photo credit: Dzmitry Kliapitski / 123RF
Abdurrahman explained at the Indonesia Banking Expo 2019 on Wednesday that Visa’s bank partners face difficulties to grant loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, since banks have a very rigid regulation and the potential risks are big. On the other hand, Visa’s collaboration with Gojek can open a wider opportunity. “We need to push the financial inclusion faster,” Abdurrahman said.
Asked on whether Visa will bring the pay later service to Gojek, he said that it “is part of the ongoing discussions with the ride-hailing company.” However, he declined to mention when it will bring the service, adding that it is still in discussion with both parties.
He mentioned that the current absorption of lending facilities through bank partners is too slow compared to fintech players and ride-hailing firms. He revealed that there are only 17 million active credit cards in the country, which has a population of 265 million habitants. One person could have two or three credit cards, which means that only about 8.5 million people are currently having access to lending facilities through credit cards.
Moreover, Abdurrahman added that Visa is only accepted by 1.1 million merchants, whereas there are over 60 million SMEs that may be out of reach from credit cards.
Recently, Visa partnered with state lender BRI and unicorn online travel agent Traveloka to launch a PayLater Card for online and offline transactions.
Last July, Visa announced its participation in Gojek’s F series funding round, without revealing the percentage of investment in the ride-hailing company. Earlier, Visa also invested in Gojek’s archrival, Singapore-headquartered Grab.
Gojek declined to comment on the matter.
Correction (November 11, 2019, 3:01 pm CST): An earlier version of the story misstated that Visa was also in discussions with ride-hailing firm Grab to bring its pay later service to the platform. A Visa spokesperson clarified that there are no such ongoing discussions with Grab.
This report was first published on KrAsia.
Editing by Charmaine de Lazo
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