REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Bank Indonesia's governor Agus Martowardojo has launched the Financial Technology (Fintech) Office that will serve as a think-tank in developing the financial services industry. "Technology innovation in financial sector is now a must. Therefore, innovation must be a continuous process," Agus said in his speech while opening the Fintech Office here on Monday.

He explained that the Fintech Office will have four roles to play. First, it will serve as a facilitator in ideas exchange among Fintech regulators and industry players. Second, Fintech Technology will contribute with business intelligence that will facilitate the system and generate tools to transform raw data into new information for analysis material.

The third role that the Fintech will play will be to provide assessments besides testing various ideas and regulations. It will also help as a coordination and collaboration platform for Fintech stakeholders. "We will make it a one stop service accessible to the financial players where we will explain the policies that we issue," Agus noted.

The Fintech Office, he added, would also act as a regulatory sandbox or a policy formulating laboratory. "Such a sandbox will be a restricted platform for innovation development as well as policy testing and evaluation," Bank Indonesia's Deputy Governor Ronald Waas noted.

However, he added, not all Fintech business segments will be included in Fintech Office as it has been specified that the facility will be for the new Fintech businesses which are not regulated by Bank Indonesia as a payment system authority. "The businesses included in Fintech Office will be the breakthrough ones or the new ones" Ronald noted.

Data obtained from Financial Service Authority shows that currently, 120 Fintech companies have a total asset value of Rp100 billion (about US$7.4 million), a 50 percent increase over the early 2015 figure.

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