Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK), has launched a new fintech center dedicated to nurturing a conducive ecosystem to harness the potential of fintech for the world’s largest Muslim nation.
The new center, known as the OJK Innovation Center for Digital Financial Technology or OJK Infinity, will act as a forum for discussion and collaboration for industry players, regulators, academics and other stakeholders.
“Through OJK Infinity, the fintech industry is expected to be able to deliver innovative, effective, efficient financial services and continue to prioritize consumer protection,” Wimboh Santoso, the chairman of OJK, said at the launch of OJK Infinity.
The vision for the center, which is part of OJK’s wider digital financial ambition, is three-fold: OJK Infinity will act as a regulatory sandbox and fintech incubator, serve as an innovation hub for the digital financial industry, and as an education center for financial technology service providers, consumers and academics as well as any fintech enthusiasts and economic actors.
One of the collaborations in the pipeline is an MoU with Telkom University to set up a Masters Education program in digital finance. The regulator is also preparing to issue a new regulation on digital finance which will function as the legal basis for financial innovation. The regulation will cover sandbox activities and fintech governance among others.
An important Muslim market with great national Islamic finance aspirations, Islamic fintech is a strong focus for the country of over 260 million. Home to a growing number of Shariah fintech providers, the number of peer-to-peer financing companies registered with OJK is 63 with a total disbursement value of IDR7.64 trillion (US$523.75 million) to 1.09 million borrower accounts as of the first half of 2018.