Antara News·Indonesia·Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 10:41 AM

Indonesia prepares mass bank accounts to boost financial inclusion

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Arnidhya Nur Zhafira, Yashinta Difa

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia is developing a system to automatically provide bank accounts to citizens at age 17, using national identity data to expand financial inclusion and improve social-assistance distribution.

At President Prabowo Subianto's direction, state-owned lenders Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Syariah Indonesia are developing digital applications to create accounts linked to civil-registration data.

Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto announced the plan on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting on financial literacy and inclusion.

He said the applications being developed by BRI and BSI would use citizens' National Identity Numbers, or NIKs, to facilitate account creation.

Airlangga said President Prabowo had directed that every citizen should have a bank account, with state-owned lenders BRI and BSI facilitating the program.

The proposed system would integrate with the Home Ministry's Population and Civil Registration Agency (Dukcapil).

Airlangga said citizens reaching 17 would ideally receive their national identity cards, or KTPs, together with active bank account numbers based on Dukcapil data.

The accounts would connect to Bank Indonesia's national payment infrastructure, allowing users to make transactions through the standardized QRIS system.

The unified financial database could also become a key channel for distributing government cash assistance, known as bansos.

President Prabowo has tasked the National Council for Financial Inclusion, which includes Bank Indonesia, the Finance Ministry and Financial Services Authority, with finalizing technical and regulatory frameworks.

Data from the Financial Services Authority and Statistics Indonesia show financial inclusion reached 93.62 percent, while financial literacy stood at 63.57 percent, he said.

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