In order to increase financial inclusion in Indonesia, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BRI collaborates with Ayoconnect, an Open Finance platform provider to build open banking-based solutions. This vision is also in line with the goals of financial inclusion and digital economic transformation which are one of the priority agendas carried out in the G20 Presidency of Indonesia in 2022.
As is known, open banking is a system that bridges interoperability between banking companies and various other companies. This is done through API (Application Programming Interface) based technology. Director of Digital and Information Technology BRI Arga M. Nugraha believes that this collaboration can benefit both parties because the implementation of open banking use cases is becoming more diverse. “BRI continues to spur digital transformation to realize its vision as The Most Valuable Banking Group in Southeast Asia & Champion of Financial Inclusion. The collaboration between BRI and Ayoconnect is a manifestation of our commitment to collaborate and grow together, to provide digital-based financial services that are easily accessible, and able to answer market needs and developments in the digital era,” he said.
Since 2018, Arga added, BRI has been aggressively developing open banking solution initiatives through BRIAPI with various use cases. In addition to Direct Debit, BRIAPI can also be integrated into various business lines, such as BRIVA (Virtual Account), Fund Transfer, BRIZZI card top-up, cardless cash withdrawals, as well as informational APIs that can assist business financial management. To date, BRIAPI’s reach has been used by more than 380 partners from various business sectors, both digital and non-digital.
Previously, the collaboration between BRI and Ayoconnect also included providing the Direct Debit API feature for companies that have partnered with Ayoconnect. Direct Debit is an online payment feature for customers, by debiting funds from the account directly. Customers can pay without transferring or switching applications. The synergy between Ayoconnect and BRI in expanding access to Open Banking is believed to accelerate the joint mission of the two companies in increasing public financial inclusion as well as achieving Indonesia’s economic recovery.
“Open Banking has tremendous potential in increasing public financial inclusion as well as accelerating the business growth of companies of various scales. For the public, Open Banking provides financial services that are faster and safer thanks to the integrated exchange of data between institutions. For business people, various Open Banking APIs from various service providers in one open ecosystem also allow companies to launch financial features in just a few weeks,” explained Jakob Rost, CEO and Founder of Ayoconnect.
For information, Ayoconnect itself was founded in 2016, has received a total funding of US$30 million or equivalent to Rp427.5 billion. Various fundings were obtained from well-known venture capital firms such as BRI Ventures, Tiger Global, and PayU. Every year, Ayoconnect processes 500 million API hits from more than 200 partner companies.
