Financial services companies Dana and LinkaAja are exploring opportunities for potential collaboration in the coming months to bring Indonesia’s payments ecosystem on par with global leaders.
At a forum in Jakarta, Indonesia, representatives from both companies expressed their willingness to share resources for the common good, while hinting at a large-scale adoption of emerging technologies. Top executives from both companies pointed to use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology in finance that are subject to government policy.
Dana’s Chief Technology Officer Norman Sasono and LinkaAja’s Chief Commercial Officer Rendy Nugraha shared the stage at the Asian Banking and Finance Forum 2024 and exchanged ideas to match the pace of rapid industry-wide digitalization.
Rather than adopting a one-sided strategy, Sasono revealed that the coming changes to internal and external processes will revolve around consumers. Dana says it is experimenting with a range of strategies to receive customer feedback, including surveys, social media responses and mobile app data.
“The most important thing in adapting to customer demand is getting customer feedback,” says Sasono.
Nugraha said LinkaAja is also using a similar strategy to implement change, with the executive touting a “multifaceted strategy.” LinkaAja appears to be tinkering with various AI personalization features and high-level partnerships with tech companies to gather insights from end users.
While both companies say they will consult extensively with their customer bases, there is consensus that innovation will be key to bringing Indonesia’s payments ecosystem up to speed.
A potential collaboration could see both companies leverage their respective strengths to expand existing payment services. Dana could enter the credit and insurance space while using LinkaAja’s extensive reach in Southeast Asia to expand her horizons to Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.
For LinkaGe, the partnership is expected to enable the financial firm to explore use cases in retail, transportation, supply chain and oil and gas.
“We want to work together instead of fighting with each other to help the nation achieve financial inclusion,” Nugraha said.
Not all plain sailing
While the planned partnership has created a buzz in the ecosystem, skeptics argue that integrating emerging technologies could be an uphill climb for both entities. They base their argument on the Indonesian government’s tough attitude towards blockchain in the financial world and the planned double tax on digital currencies.
However, new capital injections from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) could smooth the climb for both companies, while the government’s proactive stance is expected to protect investors from black swan events.
The country previously launched a national digital currency exchange in a bold effort to protect residents and ensure uniformity of operations. Other strict rules include a requirement that two-thirds of the board of all digital asset companies in the country must be Indonesian and a clear separation of client funds to avoid commingling with proprietary assets.
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