Financial innovation, risk mitigation must go together: BI

Innovation for promoting digital financial inclusion needs to be balanced with the mitigation of risks arising from digital activities in the finance sector, Bank Indonesia’s Deputy Governor Doni P. Joewono has said.

As the digitalization of the finance sector continues to develop, new risks will appear, which will necessitate immediate mitigation, he noted during the ‘International Seminar on Digital Finance Inclusion’ on Wednesday.

“A CGAP study in 2021 identified new risks that stood out the most, such as data misuse and fraud, especially for new and vulnerable digital finance service consumers,” he highlighted.

The new risks also comprise cellular applications fraud, synthetic identity fraud, biometric identity violation, and algorithmic bias, he said.

Meanwhile, other older risks, such as data violation, SIM exchange fraud, aggressive marketing and debt collection practices, ineffective conflict resolution, and liability allocation risk, have become aggravated, Joewono said.

“It is important to achieve a balance between innovation in promoting digital financial inclusion and realizing, assessing, and handling the risks that appear,” he remarked.

Digital finance inclusion is one of the main priorities of Indonesia’s G20 Presidency in 2022, which is expected to come up with a Finance Inclusion Framework, he noted.

With this, it is expected that digitalization in the finance sector could be utilized to improve productivity and the economy of women, youth, and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sustainably and inclusively, he said.

“This framework will be supported by several reports on digital finance inclusion and MSEs (micro and small enterprises) finance sector, which align with the G20 Finance Inclusion Action Plan,” he noted.

During the seminar, Joewono also informed that 13.6 million merchants utilized BI’s Quick Response Code Indonesia Standard (QRIS) until the end of December 2021.

Source: Antara News