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Finance
Indonesia’s financial sector has been flourishing over the past half decade. The COVID-19 pandemic period, while being a time of austerity for most sectors, led to revolutionary innovations in Indonesia’s financial services industry, particularly in fintech. From December 2020 to December 2022, total assets of the fintech sector grew by 48.54 percent from 2020 to 2022. This growing trend continued even after the pandemic lockdowns ended, as total assets in fintech grew by 30.8 percent from December 2022 to December 2023.
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Finance
Indonesia’s financial sector has been flourishing over the past half decade. The COVID-19 pandemic period, while being a time of austerity for most sectors, led to revolutionary innovations in Indonesia’s financial services industry, particularly in fintech. From December 2020 to December 2022, total assets of the fintech sector grew by 48.54 percent from 2020 to 2022. This growing trend continued even after the pandemic lockdowns ended, as total assets in fintech grew by 30.8 percent from December 2022 to December 2023.
With fintech paving the way forward, traditional banking followed suit by revolutionizing its services. From 2022 to 2023, the banking industry’s fund distribution increased by 6.28 percent, source of funds increased by 6.33 percent, and total assets in the industry grew by 6.98 percent, reaching a total of US$8.22 trillion. Moreover, even regional banks have been benefitting from this wave of innovation. For the same period from 2022 to 2023, the regional banking sector saw a 7.67 percent in distributed funds, an 8.08 percent increase in source of funds, and a 7.52 percent increase in total assets, reaching a total of US$137.96 billion.
Innovations in Indonesia’s finance sector extend beyond financial services. On September 2023, the Indonesian monetary authority, Bank Indonesia (BI), introduced three pro-market monetary instruments that function as short-term fixed income securities with high coupon rates. The three instruments, SRBI, SUVBI, and SUVBI, were able to collect Rp 409 trillion (US$25.2 billion), US$2.31 billion, and US$387 million, respectively.
Particularly in the case of the SRBI, this instrument represented an innovative way to attract capital flow from abroad during a period of high credit costs and slow investment. Approximately 20.77 percent, or Rp 85.02 trillion (US$ 5.26 billion), of the total outstanding SRBI were owned by non-Indonesian residents, underscoring the SRBI’s success as a monetary instrument.
Even when compared to other countries in the same region, the Indonesian finance sector stands out for its stability against fluctuations. Throughout 2023, the global cost of credit was high due to hawkish Fed policies made to curb US inflation, resulting in a stagnation of capital flow on a global scale. Entering the second quarter of 2024, the composite index of many Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand recorded price decreases compared to the same period last year, reaching -3.96 percent and -13.9 percent on the Straits Times Index (STI) and the Bangkok SET index, respectively. Meanwhile, the Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index (JKSE) recorded a price increase of 5.18 percent for the same one-year period.
In summary, the Indonesian financial sector stands out for its stability and consistency, maintaining growth through innovation even during periods of austerity or global uncertainty. This consistency is also reflected in its GDP, which grew by 7.4 percent from 2022 to 2023, contributing roughly 4.16 percent to the national GDP in 2023.
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Bank Indonesia (BI) recorded business transactions at Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) 2024 in Jakarta reaching Rp1.85 trillion.
"From the business matching activities, Alhamdulillah ISEF 2024 has successfully recorded almost Rp2 trillion in deals. They include Rp641 billion of financing commitments and realizations, Rp295 billion of trade commitments and realizations, and Rp1 trillion of sharia financial ecosystem cooperation commitments. It's extraordinary," BI Senior Deputy Governor Destry Damayanti revealed at the closing ceremony of ISEF 2024 in Jakarta on Oct. 3, 2024.
ISEF 2024, which took place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, 2024 with "Synergy to Strengthen the Resilience and Revival of the Global Sharia Economy" as its theme, was attended by 5,143 exhibitors who earned Rp115 billion of revenue at the event.
"In addition to those deals, retail sales in the last four days also recorded, Alhamdulillah, a fantastic figure. With around 5 thousand exhibitors outside, the total sales revenue reached Rp115 billion in just four days until yesterday night (Oct. 2, 2024)," she added.
Destry stated that the achievement was supported by the collaboration and synergy of all parties who gave their time, energy, and funds to buy sharia economic and financial products.
"ISEF 2024 is not only a forum for sharia economic and financial actors to market their products, but it also [provides] several activities which aims to improve financing and global market access for sharia economy players and MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) through business matching activities," she explained.
Destry said that synergy, innovation, digitalization, and compliance with sharia are strategies to strengthen Indonesia's Islamic ecosystem and finance that must be carried out more deeply from now on and in the future is necessary to turn Indonesia into a global center for Islamic economics and finance,
"Hence, the vision of Indonesia becoming the center for global Islamic economy and finance must be implemented through programs that are systematically and efficiently put together," she elaborated.
Destry noted that BI, the Religious Affairs Ministry, the National Zakat Agency (Baznas), and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) cannot strengthen the Islamic ecosystem and finance alone, so there must be close synergy and collaboration between stakeholders - including business actors.
BI continues to synergize with the government, related authorities, and industry to strengthen the Islamic economy and finance that could encourage sustainable economic growth.
"We must [work] together to continue strengthening our Islamic financial economy, because the sharia economy and finance ecosystem cannot be achieved with individual efforts alone," she concluded.
The series of activities at the 11th ISEF consisted of national and international talk shows, business matching, the International Halal Showcase, Tabligh Akbar, Muslim Travel Expo, Indonesia International Islamic School and Education Expo (IN2ISE), and Halalicious Culinary Festival, as well as a series of competitions.
ISEF 2024 was preceded by the Road to ISEF that consisted of Sharia Economy and Finance Festival (FESyar) events from May to September 2024 in three regions, namely in the Riau Islands for the Sumatra region, Southeast Sulawesi for the Eastern Indonesia Region (KTI), and East Java for the Java region.
