Indonesians at ease with e-money services

With Indonesian consumers increasingly using mobile wallets for payments, E-money transactions have ballooned from 2.6 million in 2008 to a record 203.4 million in 2014. Recognizing the growth potential, the Third Annual Mobile Wallet Conference 2015 gathered industry leaders and government officials to discuss stake-holder responses to key industry trends. Spire’s Deputy CEO Jeffrey Bahar addressed the conference.

Jeffrey Bahar, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Spire Research and Consulting group, was honored to be invited as a guest speaker at the Third Annual Mobile Wallet Conference held in Jakarta, Indonesia from 18 – 21 August 2015. In his presentation, Bahar spoke about Indonesia’s advancing mobile money industry with focus on four key growth sectors – namely service providers, instruments (mode of service), financial regulatory authorities and services.

To describe the growth curve of mobile wallets, Bahar shared a brief overview on how banking institutions and mobile carriers introduced e-money services in the form of physical cards in 2006. With the advent of advanced technology and penetration of smartphones into the market, most mobile money services transitioned into mobile service applications – all available for free download.

Interestingly, mobile money services are used for an array of payments spanning retail payment, public transportation, online payment, bill payment and many more others.

However, these services are required by regulators to be classified as registered and unregistered. The division is based on identity registration of mobile money owners with the publishers’ database – an e-money operator database that stores customer information.

Bahar’s presentation deck on “Development of mobile wallet market in Indonesia 2006-2015” can be found here.

https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/events/indonesians-at-ease-with-e-money-services/

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