Jakarta. Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, officially launched a new financial technology — fintech for short — office on Monday (14/11) to support the growing number of technology-based financial services in Indonesia.
“The government wants to help fintech companies develop more tech-based financial transactions,” Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardoyo said on Monday.
The central bank tasks its fintech office with four main duties: facilitating discussion and sharing ideas, as a business intelligence unit providing fintech companies with the latest economic data, assessing the potential, benefits and risks of fintech services in Indonesia and providing a one-stop service for companies in need of detailed information on government policies.
The fintech office also functions as a lab — or a regulatory sandbox as the central bank calls it — which startup companies can use to discuss and develop their business models before rolling them out for customers.
Fintech transactions in Indonesia reached a total value of $14.5 billion as of September this year — only 0.6 percent of the total value of fintech transactions globally, which has topped $2.35 trillion.
According to the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the country’s financial service regulator, there are 120 financial technology companies in Indonesia with Rp 100 billion in total assets.