IDR-SGD Local Currency Transaction Framework: ACCD Channel Goes Live

Bank Indonesia and the Monetary Authority of Singapore switched on the Indonesian rupiah-Singapore dollar Local Currency Transaction framework on 31 August 2026. From that date, twelve appointed banks can facilitate eligible current-account transactions, direct investment and cross-border payments in rupiah and Singapore dollars, with direct IDR-SGD quotation promoted under the framework.

The announcement is short, and brevity can mislead. For the treasury, payments and financial-crime teams inside those twelve banks, and for the corporates that bank with them, the Local Currency Transaction framework changes the settlement currency, the counterparty channel, and the documentation trail on eligible cross-border flows that may previously have used another currency or settlement route. The LCT materials reviewed do not state that the framework displaces generally applicable anti-money-laundering, sanctions or reporting obligations; those obligations should be assessed separately under the law applicable to each institution. A new operating decision sits on top of them: whether to route an eligible flow through an Appointed Cross Currency Dealer at all.

The people who will actually operate this are treasury, payments and financial-crime teams inside the twelve banks, and the corporates that bank with them. For them the first question is a practical one. Given an eligible Indonesia-Singapore flow, does routing it through an Appointed Cross Currency Dealer in the local-currency pair make sense, and what evidence and controls does that routing demand?

Related reading: our note on the HKMA-MAS cross-border banking supervision MoU.

The dates that define the IDR-SGD framework

The framework is the operational end of a cooperation track that both central banks have been building for four years, and the calendar matters because each step carried a different legal weight.

• 28 August 2020: Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 22/12/PBI/2020 on the settlement of bilateral transactions using local currencies through banks takes effect. This is the instrument that defines the Appointed Cross Currency Dealer mechanism used across Indonesia’s local-currency arrangements.
• August 2022: Bank Indonesia and MAS sign the Memorandum of Understanding to establish a bilateral rupiah-Singapore dollar framework.
• April 2026: the two central banks agree the Operational Guidelines for the framework.
• 31 August 2026: the framework is operationalised and the appointed banks can begin facilitating settlement.

Read that sequence carefully before assuming a hard compliance deadline exists. Operationalisation is an enabling event: it opens the channel without imposing a filing cut-off. Nothing in the 31 August announcement requires any bank or corporate to move a payment onto the framework by a set date. The date matters because it is the operational launch date for the channel. On the Indonesian side, PADG 25/2026 had already taken effect on 14 August 2026; the 31 August announcement did not create a separate compliance effective date.

What operationalisation actually changed

Before 31 August, the rupiah-Singapore dollar framework existed as an intention: a signed MoU and, from April 2026, an agreed set of Operational Guidelines. Neither of those let a business settle an invoice. Operationalisation is the moment the appointed banks were named and permitted to facilitate live settlement in the two local currencies.

It helps to be precise about what the framework is, because the label invites two wrong pictures. Public Bank Indonesia materials describe the ACCD, account, transfer, foreign-exchange and reporting mechanics of the framework. The materials verified for this review do not establish the detailed rail, messaging or ledger architecture. Those technical statements should be confirmed against the April 2026 Operational Guidelines before being used as implementation assumptions.

The practical shift is the availability of direct rupiah-Singapore dollar quotation and settlement through ACCDs for eligible transactions. This can reduce reliance on an intermediary currency where one would otherwise have been used. That change supports the framework’s stated expectation of lower transaction costs and reduced exchange-rate risk for businesses using it.

The twelve Appointed Cross Currency Dealers

The framework runs through Appointed Cross Currency Dealers, or ACCDs. An ACCD is a bank that the two central banks have specifically authorised to operate the local-currency settlement arrangement, with the criteria and the appointment set by Bank Indonesia and the partner authority. The framework is a closed channel in this sense: settlement flows through an appointed bank, or it does not flow through the framework at all.

Bank Indonesia and MAS named nine ACCDs in Indonesia and three in Singapore.

On the Indonesian side: PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk, PT Bank DBS Indonesia, PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk, PT Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk, PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk, PT Bank OCBC NISP Tbk, PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Timur Tbk, and PT Bank UOB Indonesia.

On the Singapore side: DBS Bank Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, and United Overseas Bank Limited.

For a corporate treasurer, the ACCD list identifies the banks appointed to operate the framework, but the Indonesian rules do not limit client access to a direct ACCD relationship or a single correspondent model. PADG 25/2026 addresses the circumstances under which Indonesian ACCDs may transact through other banks; confirm the applicable provision and conditions against the PADG text before describing the non-ACCD access model to clients. Relationship managers should therefore describe the access route actually offered by their bank rather than state that every client must bank directly with one of the twelve ACCDs.

Which flows the framework covers, and which it does not

The joint announcement says ACCDs may facilitate current-account transactions, direct-investment transactions and cross-border payments in rupiah and Singapore dollars. PADG 25/2026 is more specific on the Indonesian side: underlying transactions include current-account transactions, direct investment, financing by an Indonesian ACCD to an Indonesian customer, and other underlying transactions designated by Bank Indonesia. PADG 25/2026 treats cross-border payment as a payment mechanism for trade in goods and services under the current-account category. Separately, the 17 November 2023 joint BI-MAS release states that the local-currency framework would facilitate cross-border payments including QR payments and that, after LCT implementation, the cross-border QR linkage would use ACCD direct local-currency quotations. Cross-border payment should not be treated as a standalone or unrestricted underlying category.

Underlying-document requirements are transaction-specific, not universal. PADG 25/2026 distinguishes between the existence of an Underlying Transaction and the requirement for supporting documents. PADG 25/2026 provides for threshold-based rules on when an Underlying Transaction is required for SGD transfers to Singapore; the operative threshold, counterparty type and direction conditions should be confirmed from the PADG text and official FAQ before applying them to a specific transaction. PADG 25/2026 provides for threshold-based Underlying Transaction requirements that differ by transaction direction, counterparty type and amount. Specified inter-ACCD arrangements address documentation requirements separately. Confirm the applicable thresholds and exceptions from the PADG text and official FAQ.

The plumbing on the Indonesian side includes special non-resident rupiah accounts that an ACCD may open to hold the rupiah leg, with balance limits applied at day-end under Bank Indonesia’s rules. My working assumption is that most Singapore-side corporates will experience the framework as a pricing and settlement change on their existing payments rather than as a new account they open in Jakarta, though the account mechanics are a real part of the rulebook and worth reading where a client is structuring larger or recurring flows.

Direct rupiah-Singapore dollar quotation and the cost angle

Direct quotation is a named feature of the framework, and it is more than presentation. Bank Indonesia’s regulation requires an Indonesian ACCD to issue a direct quotation of the partner currency against rupiah at a fair, executable market price. The framework’s key features, as the two central banks describe them, include the promotion of direct rupiah-Singapore dollar quotations and the rules that support wider local-currency use.

The central banks state that the LCT framework is expected to reduce exchange-rate risk and transaction costs, and direct IDR-SGD quotation is one of its key features. The exact number of conversion spreads and correspondent charges depends on the bank’s pricing and settlement route, so those cost components should not be stated as universal. This is the same cost-and-speed problem that sits behind the G20 cross-border payments cost and speed targets, and behind the broader messaging harmonisation in CPMI’s harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments. A bilateral local-currency framework attacks the same friction from a different direction, by shortening the currency chain rather than the message.

Where the Local Currency Transaction framework’s rulebook actually sits

A joint central-bank announcement reads as if both sides had issued matching rules. For this framework the rulebook is asymmetric, and that catches out cross-border write-ups. On the Indonesian side, the governing stack includes Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 22/12/PBI/2020 as amended by Regulation No. 23/9/PBI/2021, Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 24/6/PBI/2022 on the use of rupiah in international activities, and the Singapore-specific implementing Regulation of Member of the Board of Governors No. 25 of 2026 (PADG 25/2026), effective 14 August 2026. PADG 25/2026 contains the operative IDR-SGD rules on ACCD participation, SNA and Sub-SNA accounts, transfers, financing, SGD/IDR transactions, quotation, reporting, sanctions and correspondence.

The 31 August joint announcement does not itself specify a new MAS return, licence category or Singapore conduct rule. That is not enough to establish that no Singapore-side operational requirement exists. Singapore ACCDs should map the framework against current MAS obligations and any applicable bilateral operational directions rather than infer the absence of requirements from the media release alone.

The practical consequence is that a group operating on both sides must map the Indonesian and Singapore requirements separately. The Indonesian side is governed by PBI 22/12/PBI/2020 as amended, PBI 24/6/PBI/2022 on the use of rupiah in international activities, and PADG 25/2026. The Singapore-side requirements should be confirmed from current MAS or bilateral operational material rather than inferred from the absence of a rule change in the media release.

How the framework sits alongside ASEAN payment connectivity

In November 2022, five ASEAN central banks signed the Regional Payment Connectivity MoU to strengthen cross-border payment connectivity. RPC includes QR-code and fast-payment modalities and supports activities including trade, investment, remittances and tourism. The IDR-SGD LCT framework is distinct but operationally connected: PADG 25/2026 provides that trade in goods and services within the current-account category may be paid through cross-border payment mechanisms. BI and MAS stated in their 17 November 2023 joint release that the local-currency framework would facilitate cross-border payments including QR payments and that, after LCT implementation, the cross-border QR linkage would use ACCD direct local-currency quotations.

Both sit under the same ASEAN financial-integration banner, and the MAS and Bank Indonesia statement places the IDR-SGD framework squarely in that context of promoting local-currency use in intra-ASEAN transactions. For a compliance officer the distinction still has to hold, because the controls are different. A QR-linked retail payment and a documented rupiah-Singapore dollar trade settlement through an ACCD raise different customer due-diligence, screening and reporting questions. Reading a headline about ASEAN local-currency cooperation and applying one control set to both is the kind of shortcut that surfaces in an audit.

What payment compliance teams should check now

The framework rewards a short, concrete operational review over a policy rewrite. For a team inside an ACCD, or a team whose bank clears through one, the near-term questions are operational.

Confirm the channel. Establish whether your institution is an ACCD and, if not, the access model permitted under the applicable Indonesian and Singapore arrangements. PADG 25/2026 addresses the circumstances under which Indonesian ACCDs may transact through other banks; the Singapore-side access model should be confirmed from applicable MAS or bilateral operational material.

Map the eligible flows. On the Indonesian side, apply PADG 25/2026: Underlying Transactions include current-account transactions, direct investment, financing by an Indonesian ACCD to an Indonesian customer, and other underlyings designated by Bank Indonesia. Cross-border payment is addressed for trade in goods and services within the current-account category; it is not a standalone catch-all underlying category.

Build a transaction-specific eligibility and evidence control. Map each transaction type to the PADG 25/2026 threshold and documentation rule, including cases where an underlying document is not required. Where documentation is required, record the permitted document type, timing, amount and tenor checks, and ownership of the control. The applicable thresholds and exceptions by direction, counterparty type and amount should be confirmed from the PADG text and official FAQ.

Map financial-crime controls separately. The LCT materials reviewed do not alter or restate each institution’s generally applicable customer-due-diligence, sanctions-screening or suspicious-transaction-reporting obligations. Institutions should therefore map the payment route and apply the financial-crime requirements that otherwise govern the relevant customer, transaction and jurisdiction, rather than infer a specific screening change from the move to IDR-SGD settlement.

Map the LCT-specific reporting requirements. PADG 25/2026 requires Indonesian ACCD banks to report IDR-SGD LCT activity periodically to Bank Indonesia through periodic reports, including foreign-exchange-flow reporting and other designated reports as specified in PADG 25/2026 and its official FAQ. Confirm the specific report forms and filing identifiers from the PADG text and FAQ. Reporting implementation should therefore be mapped to PADG 25/2026 rather than treated only as unchanged legacy statistical reporting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is settling Indonesia-Singapore trade in rupiah and Singapore dollars now mandatory?

No. The framework is an option that the appointed banks can now offer. Operationalisation opens the channel; it does not oblige any business to move an existing US dollar payment onto the pair, and it sets no deadline for doing so. The choice sits with the parties and their banks.

Our bank is not on the ACCD list. Can we still offer clients the framework’s pricing?

Not as an ACCD unless it is appointed. However, PADG 25/2026 addresses the circumstances under which Indonesian ACCDs may transact through other banks. The precise access model therefore depends on the operating arrangement; a correspondent relationship should not be described as the only permitted route unless the applicable Singapore-side arrangements establish that.

What counts as an eligible underlying transaction?

The announcement names current-account transactions, direct-investment transactions and cross-border payments in the two currencies. PADG 25/2026 provides the more detailed Indonesian-side underlying categories and documentary rules. Requirements are transaction- and threshold-specific under PADG 25/2026, with applicable thresholds and exceptions differing by direction, counterparty type and amount. PADG 25/2026 provides for threshold-based Underlying Transaction requirements, and specified inter-ACCD arrangements address documentation requirements separately. Confirm the applicable thresholds and exceptions from the PADG text and official FAQ. Where an Underlying Transaction or document is required, the applicable amount, tenor and evidence rules apply.

Does the framework change our sanctions and AML obligations?

The LCT materials reviewed do not state that the framework displaces generally applicable customer-due-diligence, sanctions-screening or suspicious-transaction-reporting obligations. Firms should map the payment route and apply the requirements that otherwise govern the relevant customer, transaction and jurisdiction rather than infer that a particular screening step disappears.

Is portfolio investment in scope?

Securities flows should confirm the applicable Bank Indonesia and ACCD requirements for the specific flow, including whether portfolio-investment income and principal portfolio-investment transactions are classified as current-account or direct-investment underlyings under PADG 25/2026.

How does this relate to the ASEAN QR-code payment linkages?

They are distinct but operationally connected initiatives. Regional Payment Connectivity covers cross-border payment connectivity, while the IDR-SGD LCT framework governs use of the local-currency pair through ACCDs. PADG 25/2026 provides that trade in goods and services within the current-account category may be executed through cross-border payment mechanisms. The 17 November 2023 joint BI-MAS release states that the local-currency framework would facilitate cross-border payments including QR payments and that, after LCT implementation, the cross-border QR linkage would use ACCD direct local-currency quotations. Procedures should therefore distinguish the initiatives while recognising that operational connection.

Does a Singapore business need a rupiah account in Indonesia to use the framework?

Not necessarily. The special non-resident rupiah accounts in the framework are an Indonesian-side mechanism that ACCDs may operate. As a working assumption, most Singapore-side users will experience the framework as a settlement and pricing change on their existing payments. Where a client structures larger or recurring rupiah flows, the account mechanics in Bank Indonesia’s regulation become relevant and should be read directly.

Related Articles

• Hong Kong-Singapore Banking Supervision MoU: How the HKMA and MAS structured cross-border banking supervision cooperation.
• G20 Cross-Border Payments Targets 2027: The roadmap targets for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments.
• CPMI Harmonised ISO 20022 for Cross-Border Payments: The harmonised data requirements reshaping cross-border payment messaging.
• HKMA Faster Payment System Enhancement: Hong Kong’s FPS upgrade and its bearing on regional payments.
• SEPA Instant Payments Regulation: The EU instant-payments obligations for payment service providers.

Key Takeaways

• The IDR-SGD LCT framework was operationalised on 31 August 2026; PADG 25/2026, the Singapore-specific Indonesian implementing rule, took effect on 14 August 2026.
• Nine Indonesian and three Singaporean banks are ACCDs. PADG 25/2026 addresses the circumstances under which Indonesian ACCDs may transact through other banks, so client access is not necessarily limited to a direct ACCD relationship; confirm the applicable provision and conditions from the PADG text.
• On the Indonesian side, Underlying Transactions include current-account transactions, direct investment, ACCD financing and other underlyings designated by Bank Indonesia; cross-border payment is addressed for trade in goods and services within the current-account category, while the 17 November 2023 joint BI-MAS release links the cross-border QR payment linkage to ACCD direct local-currency quotations after LCT implementation.
• Underlying requirements are transaction-specific and threshold-based under PADG 25/2026; applicable thresholds and exceptions by direction, counterparty type and amount should be confirmed from the PADG text and official FAQ.
• Indonesian ACCDs have LCT-specific periodic reporting obligations under PADG 25/2026, including periodic foreign-exchange-flow reporting and other designated reports as specified in PADG 25/2026 and its official FAQ.
• Financial-crime obligations remain governed by applicable law; firms should map the payment route and apply the requirements that otherwise govern the relevant customer, transaction and jurisdiction.
• RPC and LCT are distinct but connected: the Indonesia-Singapore cross-border QR linkage can use the LCT framework and ACCD direct quotations.

Sources and References

• Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank Indonesia, media release, “Bank Indonesia and the Monetary Authority of Singapore Operationalise Local Currency Transaction Framework for Bilateral Trade Transactions”, 31 August 2026: mas.gov.sg
• Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 22/12/PBI/2020 on Settlement for Bilateral Transactions Using Local Currencies Through Bank, effective 28 August 2020, as amended by Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 23/9/PBI/2021.
• Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 23/9/PBI/2021, Amendment to Regulation No. 22/12/PBI/2020 on Settlement for Bilateral Transactions Using Local Currencies Through Bank.
• Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 24/6/PBI/2022 on the Use of Rupiah in International Activities, effective 27 April 2022.
• Bank Indonesia, Regulation of Member of the Board of Governors No. 25 of 2026 on Settlement of Bilateral Transactions between Indonesia and Singapore Using Rupiah and Singapore Dollar through Banks (PADG 25/2026), effective 14 August 2026, together with Bank Indonesia’s official FAQ for PADG 25/2026.
• Bank Indonesia and Monetary Authority of Singapore, joint media release, “Launch of Cross-border QR Payments Linkage between Indonesia and Singapore”, 17 November 2023: bi.go.id
• Monetary Authority of Singapore, media release, “Central Banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand Seal Cooperation in Regional Payment Connectivity”, 14 November 2022: mas.gov.sg

Before the first rupiah-Singapore dollar settlement

The 31 August announcement operationalised the channel, but Indonesian ACCDs must also implement PADG 25/2026, which had already taken effect on 14 August 2026 and includes transaction-specific documentation and periodic reporting requirements. The immediate work is to confirm the institution’s role, map eligible flows and access routes, apply the correct underlying-document thresholds confirmed from the PADG text and official FAQ, and implement the required reporting for LCT activity.

Disclaimer: The information on RegReportingDesk.com is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, regulatory, tax, or compliance advice. Always consult your compliance officer, legal counsel, or the relevant supervisory authority for guidance specific to your institution.