Telecommunication enables digital financial solution - 0 views
started by sephmyrthe on 11 Jun 14
started by sephmyrthe on 11 Jun 14
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started by sephmyrthe on 11 Jun 14
Development in information and communications technology in line with the supporting infrastructure globally has changed people’s way of life and activities in many aspects, such as dealing with financial affairs.
A guy was on a motorbike; desperately racing through congested traffic to reach an ATM. He then called his sister asking for help to purchase a rare music collection. With just a few clicks on her phone, his sister who was working on a remote mountainous area made the payment. The problem was solved.
“Just use mobile banking,” she advised her brother.
Yes, it’s a television commercial depicting how mobile banking becomes a more important thing in the modern daily life of humans. With mobile banking, or m-banking, people can access their financial records anytime, anywhere. Even if they are away from any branch, ATMs and desktop computers, people can easily check the balance account, make fund transfers and view their transaction history, with safety and security guaranteed by the related banks.
Beyond a communications device, a mobile phone now functions as a camera, clock and calendar, calculator, alarm, games, diary, music and video player. For sure, users can also now utilize the gadget for their banking, too.
Mobile banking or m-banking is apparently another form of Internet banking, also known as online banking or e-banking. The latter is a way for customers of a bank to conduct financial transactions on a secure website operated by the related financial institution.
Online banking and m-banking are blooming in many countries, also in Indonesia, a nation with some 250 million people. Though only 20 percent of Indonesia’s total adult population has an account at a formal financial institution, as indicated by the World Bank’s 2011 Global Financial Inclusion Index, both digital facilities are on the rise to serve existing and prospective users in big cities, thanks to better cooperation between banks and telecommunications carriers in the country.
More banks are expecting to roll out e-banking and m-banking solutions, paralleling the measures set by telecommunications providers to upgrade their networks to deliver faster data speeds. In some cases, several banking institutions in Indonesia now provide telecommunications services, while several cellular operators offer their own financial-service applications.
Yet, it’s expected that banks and telecommunications providers can bolster their collaboration or converge their services in offering electronic financial solutions. The two industries began cooperating long ago, as banks traditionally lease some kind of networks from telecommunications carriers to provide facilities such as ATMs and Electronic data Capture (EDCs).
The growing number of Internet and mobile phone users in Indonesia has been a key driver for cellular network operators in improving their digital financial solutions.
Data from the Association of Indonesian Internet Providers (APJII) indicates the number of Indonesian Internet users reached 71.19 million in 2013, up by about 13 percent from 63 million users in 2012, with a current penetration of 28 percent of the total population of around 248 million people. This year, the figure is expected to reach 107 million in 2014 and increase to 139 million in 2015.
Mobile phone subscriptions, in the meantime, have surged 2.5 percent year-on-year to 285 million subscriptions in 2013, with the number of 3G services subscriptions hitting 45.4 million, according to data from Accenture.
On the other hand, the fact that many Indonesians are still non-bankable has not deterred telecommunications providers and banks from extending new innovative features in online or digital financial solutions.
State-owned Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), for instance, aims to make people more familiar with Internet banking. Total e-banking transactions at the bank have increased by an average of 41.5 percent every year. Additionally, e-banking transactions now account for 74.2 percent of all transactions at BTN. The bank predicts that e-banking transactions will grow by 50 percent this year, given the fact that e-banking is showing positive growth in the country and will continue to do so in the future.
Another state-owned bank BRI has also seen rising electronic transactions. The bank reported that e-banking transactions reached 409.8 million in the first quarter this year, more than triple of 128.8 million transactions made at the tellers. It’s also reported that Internet banking users at BRI also rose significantly to 1.38 million in the first quarter 2014 from 430,000 in the corresponding period last year.
As consumers tend to go more on mobile devices, telecommunications carriers, particularly cellular providers, have also introduced latest electronic financial solutions to pamper their customers. Major cellular players have introduced the so-called mobile payment services; such as Telkomsel with its T-Cash, Indosat with Dompetku and XL Axiata with XL Tunai.
In the future, more Indonesians will be able to access to their bank accounts through the computers and mobile phones. Banks, telecommunications companies and also application developers are expected to prepare better infrastructure, systems and security/protection software, so Indonesia will somehow be more invulnerable from to cyber crime attacks. (I. Christianto)
References:
http://acworth.patch.com/groups/business-updates/p/the-jakarta-post-axis-capital-group-pt-telecom-indonesia
http://www.coroflot.com/hilaria/The-Jakarta-Post-Axis-Capital-Group-PT-Telecom-Indonesia