Indonesia FII Data Shows Mixed Picture on Digital Financial Access
An initial look at the first Financial Inclusion Insights (FII) Tracker Survey of Indonesia confirms that awareness and use of mobile money are negligible. However, nearly half of the adult population has used financial services from a bank or nonbank financial institution (NFBI), and most of these people have digital access to their bank accounts.
The full results of the survey will be unveiled at the Mobile Money & Digital Payments Asia Conference in Jakarta, Jan. 20-22, 2015. InterMedia is a knowledge partner participating in the conference.
The survey of 6,000 Indonesians, conducted between August and November 2014, is the country’s first nationwide measure of financial services use to include in-depth figures on the use of digital financial services (DFS). These include mobile money and other mobile-based DFS, as well as bank and NFBI accounts, which include a digital access feature (e.g., a debit/ATM card, credit card, Web or mobile account access, or digital money transfer capability).
The survey showed 22 percent of Indonesians own a bank account, while 29 percent either have their own account or are able to use another person’s account, for example, that of a relative. Of that 29 percent, 87 percent said they were able to access their money digitally.
This means roughly one-quarter of Indonesians have digital bank account access. Nearly all of these people (99 percent) said the account offered an ATM/debit or credit card, while 60 percent said they were able to transfer money digitally with the account and 45 percent were able to conduct mobile or internet banking.
The survey made it clear that mobile money is barely showing up on the public’s radar screen so far. Only 3 percent of Indonesians knew what mobile money is, though 6 percent recognized one or more mobile money brand names. Of those who were aware of mobile money services, less than 1 percent had actually used them.
The Indonesia FII Tracker Survey will be repeated annually to track progress in DFS. Contact FII Asia Lead Nat Kretchun for more information.