Indonesia Fintech: five trends clients should watch out for

Indonesia's fintech industry continued to remain active and grow rapidly over the past year, with new rules shaping the direction of growth and innovation. We summarise the key trends and developments in digital payments, digital banking, digital financing, digital assets and emerging innovative models throughout 2025 and into 2026. 

1. Regulation is getting sharper and broader

Indonesia has moved towards a more governed, structured and mature fintech ecosystem. Bank Indonesia (BI) and Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) are rolling out more detailed, operational rules across payments, lending, digital assets and fintech innovation. Market players can expect closer supervisory scrutiny, increased data and reporting obligations, and higher governance expectations – especially for scaled platforms and financial groups.

2. Digital payments are being re-engineered

BI's revamped payments framework introduces a new TIKMI assessment framework, covering Transaction, Interconnection, Competence, Risk Management and IT Infrastructure, with the first TIKMI assessments expected by 1 April 2027. Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) is also expanding into Near Field Communication (NFC) tap to pay and public transport, while cross border payments are accelerating through BI's February 2026 decision to join the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Nexus project, connecting the BI-FAST system with five other central banks across Asia.  

3. BNPL and P2P: growth, but on regulator terms

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has been formally regulated, with banks and multi-finance companies permitted to operate under stricter disclosure and consumer protection rules. Meanwhile, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending faces increased governance, pricing caps, and lender segmentation, signalling the end of "light touch" oversight. The P2P lending sector has drawn scrutiny from Indonesia's Competition Commission (KPPU), which has questioned whether the industry's interest rate guidelines constitute anti-competitive arrangements among competitors. Compliance readiness is now a competitive differentiator. 

4. Digital assets are being mainstreamed

With crypto supervision now under OJK (transitioned from Bappebti, Indonesia's Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency), Indonesia is building a full digital asset regime covering derivatives and future token issuance, not just spot transactions. The regulator is signalling a controlled, disclosure driven market while keeping a clear distinction between digital assets and payment instruments. 

5. AI is scaling fast 

In 2025 there was a significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). AI driven alternative credit scoring (ACS) is expanding access to credit for underbanked consumers and SMEs. Regulators are supportive, but increasingly focused on model governance, transparency and data protection. "Responsible AI" is becoming a regulatory expectation, not just nice to have, with OJK having published an AI Governance Framework for banks that is likely to serve as a broader reference point for fintech and ACS providers as AI adoption accelerates.

Other developments

We have also seen several other notable developments over the past 12 months: 

• In digital banking, OJK is actively accelerating digital transformation across all banking segments, from large commercial banks to rural and syariah banks, through frameworks covering IT governance, cybersecurity, and AI adoption. 
• On the fintech innovation front, financial services aggregation has formally graduated from OJK's regulatory sandbox into a dedicated licensing regime, becoming only the second business model to achieve this status after ACS. 
• Governance standards have been raised for fintech operators, with OJK consolidating previously fragmented fit-and-proper test requirements for digital finance operators into a single unified framework. 
• Indonesia is moving toward greater financial conglomeration with the introduction of a consolidated oversight model that requires qualifying multi-sector financial groups to establish or designate a financial holding company – a framework that may increasingly draw fintech players into group-level prudential supervision.
   

In summary, while Indonesia remains one of Southeast Asia's most attractive fintech markets, success now depends as much on regulatory strategy and governance as on innovation.

This article is based on our Indonesian Fintech Trends and Developments chapter, first published in Chambers Fintech Global Practice Guide 2026. You can find the full chapter on the Chambers website here:  Fintech 2026 - Indonesia | Global Practice Guides | Chambers and Partners