Recent Blogs

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Digitizing G2P Payments: Lessons from Indonesia

Indonesia's digitization transformation for G2P payments showcases what can be achieved when strong government commitment and collaboration are combined with advanced technologies.
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Ride-Hailing Drivers in Indonesia Discuss Livelihoods, COVID-19

You can learn a lot from the back of a ride-hailing motorcycle in Jakarta. We rode with several drivers and interviewed them about their platform-based income, use of digital financial services and the impact of COVID-19. Here’s what we learned.
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Will Facebook Soon Dominate Digital Payments in India, Indonesia?

As Facebook enters the highly regulated space of digital payments in India and Indonesia, it is partnering with local players to connect its virtual ecosystem with the cash economy, gain access to logistics networks and overcome regulatory hurdles.
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Indonesia’s Retail Credit Crunch Requires Action to Keep Shelves Full

Indonesians could face empty shelves and a shrinking assortment of products due to credit crunches within consumer goods value chains brought on by COVID-19. Here are three things that can be done to keep the situation from snowballing.
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Bringing Digital Finance Agents to the Last Mile in Indonesia

A recent CGAP publication identifies six principles for viable agent networks in rural areas. In this post, we look at how where Indonesia stands against these principles.
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BTPN Wow! Using Open APIs to Bring E-Commerce to Its 250,000 Agents

By connecting its agents to e-commerce platforms, BTPN is giving agents and end-customers in Indonesia more reasons to use its mobile banking service.
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Using a Gamified Solution to Incentivize Mobile Money Agents

Empowering mobile money agents to provide exceptional customer service can be challenging. In Indonesia, BTPN has an innovative solution that uses gamification.
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Emerging Opportunities for Digital Finance in Indonesia

The recent visit to Indonesia by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA)–H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands–provided a unique opportunity to better understand key accomplishments, challenges and opportunities for financial inclusion in the country.
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Paying for School: 6 Insights for Better Financial Services

The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help?
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Adapting the Graduation Model to Reach Indonesia's Ultra Poor

The Indonesian government is testing and adapting the Graduation Approach in both rural and urban areas, targeting women who have participated in existing programs. Here's what they have learned so far.
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Vulnerable Households Need Resilient Institutions in Disasters

In Indonesia, MercyCorps is pioneering a program to help MFIs prepare for natural disasters, respond quickly when clients are in need, and stabilize the financial sector serving low-income people post-disaster.
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Using Human-Centered Design for e-Payment Systems in Indonesia

A team of designers and researchers, using human-centered design, set out to discover what would encourage both merchants and clients in Indonesia to move from cash to e-payment systems.
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Transforming Payments through mPOS: Perspectives from Indonesia

For traditional merchants in Indonesia, cash is still a mainstay of doing business. CGAP and partners set out to understand what might motivate more merchants to use digital forms of payment, particularly mobile point-of-service (mPOS) devices.
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Power of the Persona: Applied Product Innovation with Bank BTPN

This is the second of a two-part blog series presenting some of the key findings from CGAP’s Applied Product Innovation program with the Indonesian Bank BTPN.
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Indonesia: Anatomy of a Successful Human-Centered Design Project

CGAP recently completed an Applied Product Innovation (API) project with Bank BTPN in Indonesia. The goal of such API projects is to develop new financial service offerings that are relevant to customers’ lives.
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The Case for Branchless Banking in Thousand Islands, Indonesia

In Thousand Islands, Indonesia, financial access is virtually nonexistent. Since most residents have mobile phones, the introduction of branchless banking could bridge the access gap and help improve the lives of the islands' residents.
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Indonesia Moves Towards a Cash Light Economy

In mid May 2013, the three leading mobile network operators in Indonesia surprised the financial services industry by announcing they will interoperate their wallets.
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Latest on Branchless Banking from Indonesia

In early May 2013, Bank Indonesia released long-awaited guidelines for banks and mobile network operators to outsource some banking operations to agents, unleashing the potential for branchless banking across the country.
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Smart Policy: Why Islamic Banks Matter in Indonesia

With financing a key need for millions of micro to mid-sized entrepreneurs, empowering Islamic financial service providers to reach more clients is not only good for business. It’s smart policy.