BlackBerry Messenger payment service debuts in Indonesia

A bank in Indonesia has developed the first mobile payments service for Canadian handset maker BlackBerry’s Messenger service (BBM). PermataBank has teamed up with British mobile banking solutions provider Monitise to roll out a commercial pilot of BBM Money in the country ahead of a full launch.

BlackBerry users will have the option to access a Mobile Money account from their smartphone and make secure real-time payments from within BBM to their contacts who are also signed up to the service, check balances, buy mobile airtime credit and transfer money to bank accounts.

Monitise group CEO Alastair Lukies believes that by launching the BBM service in Indonesia, which has the fourth largest population in the world, job opportunities in mobile payments will open up in Britain. Last year, Lukies met with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Britain’s Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green in the South East Asian country.

“Indonesia, as the largest economy in South East Asia, is one of the leading high-growth markets identified by UK Trade & Investment,” said Lord Green. “We see great potential for the further expansion of our trade and investment relationship, and the country is on course to become one of the ten largest economies by 2030.”

He congratulated Monitise for securing the deal with PermataBank, adding the firm has created British jobs and shown that UK companies can lead the way in bringing innovative technologies to customers across the world.

Monitise has been working with PermataBank in Indonesia since mid-2011.