Exclusive: U.S. helps Mastercard, Visa score victory in Indonesia in global lobbying effort

U.S. trade officials, at the request of card networks Mastercard (MA.N) and Visa (V.N), convinced Indonesia late last year to loosen rules governing its new domestic payment network, according to Indonesian government and industry sources, and emails reviewed by Reuters. The change will allow the U.S. companies to process credit card transactions without having to partner with a local company in Indonesia, the sources said. Indonesia’s decision represented a major lobbying victory for U.S. payment companies in efforts to beat back a host of new regulations in Asia and elsewhere around data storage or the promotion of local payment networks over foreign ones.