Cash-In and Cash-Out Agents for Mobile Money in Indonesia

Abstract

inspired Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in Indonesia to provide similar services. T-Cash, the first mobile money scheme in Indonesia, was launched in 2007 by Telkomsel, the country’s biggest MNO. As of July 2011, three MNOs in Indonesia have been granted licenses from Bank Indonesia as e-money issuers and mobile money providers: Telkomsel, Indosat, and Exelcom. However, the last two companies are still in the early stages of development. With regard to financial inclusion, mobile money has played a significant role in other developing countries as a means of making payments and sending (transferring) money, which can serve low-income and unbanked people. It can also reach people in remote areas who have limited access to formal financial services. Though providing access to mobile money does not unilaterally achieve financial inclusion, it can be considered a crucial step leading up to the next level of financial services: savings, credit, and other services. Four years after Bank Indonesia granted the first mobile money license to an MNO, the level of mobile money usage in Indonesia remains quite low. This policy memo seeks to understand why the number of mobile money users and transactions in Indonesia, as compared to the number of mobile phone subscribers, remains so low. This is probably caused by several factors; this memo will focus on whether the number of mobile money agents is a major constraint to mobile money adoption in Indonesia and how Bank Indonesia’s own policies can encourage the growth of the agent network and the greater adoption of mobile money services.