Indonesia’s financial regulators are intensifying efforts to close the widening gap between the high levels of financial access and the comparatively lower financial understanding, as digitalisation boosts inclusion but complicates risks.
Indonesia’s financial regulators are stepping up efforts to close a persistent gap between financial access and financial understanding, after new survey data showed that more people are using financial products than fully understanding them. According to the Financial Services Authority, known as OJK, the national financial literacy index reached 69.57% in the 2026 National Survey on Financial Literacy and Inclusion, while the inclusion index stood much higher at 93.61%.
Friderica Widyasari Dewi, chair of OJK’s board of commissioners, said the gap partly reflects the difference in how the two measures are calculated. Financial literacy, she said at a press conference in Jakarta on Monday, August 10, covers five elements: knowledge, skills, confidence, attitude and behaviour. By contrast, inclusion is measured more simply, with a single bank account or one financial product often enough to count someone as included. OJK said that means many Indonesians are already using services without fully understanding the products they hold.
The rise in inclusion has been helped by digitalisation, which has made it easier to open accounts and access financial services without visiting a branch, OJK said. But Dewi warned that better access does not eliminate risk. She said victims of fraudulent investment schemes are not always people with low levels of education or knowledge, noting that some understand the rules of legitimate investment but are still lured by unrealistic returns. OJK says it continues to monitor illegal investment activity, including unlicensed operators, firms acting beyond their permits and businesses that begin operations before their licences are complete.
The authority is also broadening its education campaign by mapping areas according to literacy levels and local needs. The deposit insurer, LPS, backed that push, saying stronger literacy supports public trust and resilience. Its chairman, Anggito Abimanyu, said the agency will focus more heavily on people with a high-school education or below, who are both savers and users of financial services. He also said awareness of policy insurance remains very low, at 12.47%, underlining how much work remains to improve public understanding of financial protection.
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