Fintech monitoring should be conducted alongside imparting education on financial literacy, so that people without access to banking can still use financial services.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Monitoring of financial technology (fintech) by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and other authorities should be conducted alongside education on financial literacy, Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) researcher Thomas Dewaranu stated.

"Fintech monitoring should be conducted alongside imparting education on financial literacy, so that people without access to banking can still use financial services," he noted in a press statement here on Saturday.

Monitoring of fintech is deemed necessary, so that consumers are offered protection over the utilization of their data in addition to ensuring that they gain an understanding of the services that they access, he remarked.


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Monitoring can also be conducted with the dissemination of financial education to help people to avoid online loan frauds and to have the requisite financial management capability to pay on time, he explained.

This is especially holds relevance amid the extensive use of technology that has given rise to new-fangled financial institutions offering a plethora of services, such as fintech, he elaborated.

"Fintech has flexibility that no other financial institution has, such as providing a loan with smaller nominal, easier requirements and relatively shorter processing," Dewaranu pointed out.


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To this end, the emergence of fintech plays an important role in expediting financial inclusion, though it should be accompanied with an ecosystem that supports the presence of this innovation, he expounded.

Earliery, OJK's Education and Consumer Protection Board member, Tirta Segara, had highlighted the government's support to the FinEXPO BIK 2021 to boost financial literacy among people.

"The people's financial literacy rate is still low, at only 38 percent, at the end of 2019," he noted during the opening of the FinEXPO BIK 2021 event observed from here on Monday.

"Hence, any effort to expedite equitable and far-reaching financial inclusion, coupled with the effort to improve financial literacy, becomes very important and strategic," he elaborated.


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Translator: M Razi Rahman, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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