Jakarta (ANTARA) - The personal data protection regulation, which is still in the form of a draft law or bill (RUU), is important for protecting Indonesian financial technology (fintech) service users.

Chairman of the Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftech), Pandu Sjahrir, made the statement here on Thursday.

“Soon, there will be a law on privacy and data protection. It will be great to protect (users in the fintech ecosystem)," he said.

While waiting for the bill to be passed by the House of Representatives (DPR), it is hoped that fintech service developers in Indonesia will continue to maintain public trust by continuing to improve technological security, he added.

Statistics have shown that the users of digital financial services have continued to increase since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, he pointed out.

According to Bank Indonesia, the value of electronic money transactions in July 2022 rose by 39.76 percent year on year (yoy) to reach Rp35.5 trillion.

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The rapid growth of e-money transactions shows that people have become increasingly confident in the performance of digital financial services, including those managed by fintech service providers.

Citing several cases of data leakage, Sjahrir urged fintech providers in the country to maintain public trust by upgrading their services.

He said that innovation and technology will continue to develop dynamically, but fintech providers are expected to be one step ahead of cybercriminals who try to steal or break into vital national data.

On August 19, 2022, head of DPR’s Commission I, Meutya Hafid, had informed that the Personal Data Protection Bill (RUU PDP) could be ratified into law in September 2022 at the latest following the House of Representatives session for the August–September period.

Communication and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate said he expected the PDP Bill to be ratified in 2022 so that personal data protection implementation for the Indonesian society can run more optimally.

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Translator: Livia K, Kenzu T
Editor: Suharto
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