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INDONESIA: Upgrading Payment Systems
CHALLENGE
Bank Indonesia requested the World Bank’s support in implementing an upgrade of its RTGS system (called BI-RTGS) and its scripless securities settlement system (called BI-SSSS), the two most important market infrastructures in the Indonesian financial market. Bank Indonesia had been undertaking a project to upgrade the two systems since 2011. The bank’s original plan was to take these interconnected upgrades live by 2013; however, it had encountered a series of challenges in the preparation and implementation stages. Nonetheless, given the importance and urgency of the project, the system upgrades had to be completed by the end of 2015.
FIRST’S ASSISTANCE
In 2015, Bank Indonesia requested FIRST TA to support it in successfully implementing the new generation of the BI-RTGS and BI-SSSS.
This TA delivered the following outputs:
- Fact finding on the challenges in project management: The team reviewed the project planning and progress with the Bank Indonesia team and other relevant parties with the objective of providing advice and recommendations in areas critical to the success of the implementation. This involved meeting with the project leaders, business user representatives, the two main software and support vendors, and representatives from the working group of business users to gain an understanding of the status of the project and the challenges being faced in reaching the “go live” condition.
- Analysis and advice on revising the project implementation: The team provided assistance and advice on specific issues encountered by the project team through meetings and workshops. The team also provided advice on concrete actions to take toward achieving a successful implementation.
RESULTS
Bank Indonesia implemented the recommendations made by the World Bank team under the FIRST project. As a result, the Generation 2 implementation went live on November 16, 2015, and has been operational since that time. This significant achievement by the Bank Indonesia team was the result of effective cooperation between all the parties.
The final phase of this assistance to Bank Indonesia was focused on the transition from project to production. It involved reviewing the structures and resources in place for maintaining and developing the BI-RTGS and the BI-SSSS.
The project team played a key role as a third party, bringing an objective perspective to the project management department as well as other stakeholders and providing practical solutions and recommendations to the bank’s senior management. Given the complicated dynamics between stakeholders and the mounting pressure to bring the updates live, the team’s objective perspective was important in helping all stakeholders focus on solutions and ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of critical infrastructure systems in Indonesia’s financial market.