Brankas , an Indonesia-based startup, has announced it will double down on its account opening business via the mobile data kiosks across the country. These kiosks will be able to provide financial services thanks to the aggregated application programming interface (API) provided by Brankas.

This opens the door for increased financial inclusion in the rural area because clients could open accounts at these stores without having to visit a bank. Up to this point, Brankas has collaborated with three distributors, who together have 125,000 mobile data kiosks. One of these networks has 80,000 mobile data kiosks across the archipelago, particularly in the remote areas.

Therefore, 80,000 new bank accounts would be opened in a single month if each shop were successful in opening just one account. According to Brankas, which reported having more than 10 million API hits in a single month in 2022, the company now plans to grow by two times that amount in 2023. These API hits mainly came from payment requests, data requests, and balance enquiries, to name a few.

Indonesia’s efforts to close the financial gap Many Indonesians don't use financial services or have access to them. Over 70% of Indonesian adults, according to Brankas, are underbanked or unbanked. Due to the size of the Indonesian archipelago, there are frequently few or no bank branches in remote areas.

One approach to bring these institutions closer to the unbanked rural people is through technology, especially if it is incorporated into the widely used mobile data kiosks. The number of Indonesian villages and subdistricts without reliable Internet connectivity is estimated to be around 12,500; 87% of the nation's MSMEs (micro-small medium companies) have not yet entered the country's digital financial ecosystem. However, Indonesia has made the modernisation of payment systems a significant component of its domestic strategy because, like many other jurisdictions in Asia, it has recognised the potential for payments to impact financial inclusion.

The launch of BI-FAST, which will serve as the foundation of Indonesia's retail payment services, intends to increase the uptake of digital payments and bridge the gap. Brankas’ presence in Southeast Asia Brankas is not a fintech that makes loans, but the business intends to help the financial sector be more creative in how it provides its services and grows its clientele. Thus, it serves startups who want to grow their business as well as banks and insurers.

In markets like Indonesia and the Philippines for API aggregation, Brankas is one of the few regional Open Finance companies with extensive market reach. Brankas' enterprise solutions, on the other hand, are not market-specific, are easily customisable to meet regulatory standards, and may be installed on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. Many Southeast Asian nations are still attempting to understand how to embrace Open Banking in its entirety.

For instance, Indonesia recently informed the financial sector that companies operating in this sector must adhere to their API standard (SNAP). Standardising payments APIs is a priority for SNAP (though elements of data have been included in its scope). Brankas was part of the Open Banking Report 2022.

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