Indonesia has made significant progress over the past two decades in bringing people into the formal financial system. While expanding access to quality financial services—particularly in remote areas across Indonesia’s vast archipelago—remains a critical priority, these efforts will be most impactful when paired with deliberate action to improve Indonesians’ long-term resilience and financial well-being.
H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA), visited Indonesia from 24—27 November, 2025. During her visit, she engaged with policymakers, financial sector authorities, private sector leaders, and other stakeholders to identify key financial health challenges and opportunities across the country.
The UNSGSA’s visit focused on four key dimensions of financial health: managing day-to-day finances, building resilience to unexpected shocks, investing in future goals, and having confidence in one’s financial life.
Identifying the challenges
Day-to-day finances remain a challenge in Indonesia, with six in 10 Indonesians saying their income does not cover basic living expenses. Three in 10 Indonesians use payday loans to manage their daily finances.
Resilience to shocks is an extremely important issue, particularly with regards to climate impacts. 110 million Indonesians across 60 cities live in hazard-prone areas, facing risks such as floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Among those who have experienced a disaster, many report losing income, sustaining damage to their homes or livestock, or being unable to access their financial accounts.
Most Indonesians save with the future in mind, but many are saving in a basic savings account. Only one in 10 is saving formally for retirement, and early pension withdrawal remains a major issue.
The fourth component of financial health—feeling secure and in control of one’s financial life—was also a central focus of the UNSGSA’s visit. One in three Indonesians say school fees are their biggest financial worry, followed closely by monthly bills and saving for old age. The UNSGSA also underscored the growing threat that is caused by scams. Seven in 10 Indonesians face digital scam attempts every week, and in 2024 one in four people lost money to scams via real-time payments.
Opportunities for improvement
The challenges are clear, but the UNSGSA’s meetings during her visit demonstrated that there is a promising way forward. Through conversations with Indonesians from diverse backgrounds, roundtables, and bilateral meetings with international development organizations, the private sector, and government officials, the UNSGSA and members of her Reference Group gained invaluable insights into how Indonesia can strengthen each of the four core dimensions of financial health and build a financial system that genuinely improves peoples’ financial lives.
In a roundtable hosted by Deloitte Indonesia, employers discussed their role in supporting workers’ financial health, including through emergency savings programs and stronger pension support. A discussion hosted by the International Finance Corporation focused on the credit system in Indonesia and provided recommendations for making access to credit easier and safer for middle- and low-income Indonesians. At a leaders’ gathering hosted by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, C-suite executives highlighted that investing in financial health is not a philanthropic matter, but rather a business investment can lead to better economic outcomes. These conversations reaffirmed the UNSGSA’s conviction that Indonesia’s leaders are ready to advance financial health as a national priority.
Policy dialogues and outcomes
The UNSGSA held high-level policy dialogues on financial health with public and regulatory authorities to build a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead. She met with President Prabowo Subianto, as well as senior representatives from the Financial Services Authority (OJK), Bank Indonesia, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Deposit Insurance Corporation, among others. She also had a bilateral meeting with OJK’s Chairman Mahendra Siregar to discuss next steps for collaboration. At a national financial health event hosted by OJK, the UNSGSA also participated in a fireside chat with Friderica Widyasari, OJK’s Chief Executive for Financial Services, Business Conduct Supervision, Education, and Consumer Protection, highlighting the role of regulators and private sector leaders in strengthening financial health.
The visit culminated in an announcement from President Prabowo Subianto that Indonesia will establish a National Council for Financial Health, underscoring the government’s commitment to making financial health a national priority.
Indonesia has made its ambition to become a high-income nation by 2045 clear. Advancing financial health can play an important part in reaching this goal, by enhancing the financial resilience of households and supporting Indonesia’s broader agenda for inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
Client Stories
Queen Máxima spent significant time engaging with Indonesians from different backgrounds to hear firsthand how improved financial services and products are shaping their lives—and what more is needed to better support their financial health. She spoke with garment workers in Sragen about how access to financial support and budgeting tools strengthened their ability to save and plan for the future, while underscoring the need for better information on investment products designed for their income patterns and lived realities. She heard from new mortgage clients in Bekasi how homeownership helped them feel more secure in their financial lives and made them more disciplined in financial management. And she held a discussion with entrepreneurs in a Batik village about how digital products and micro-investment opportunities transformed their small businesses. All these conversations highlighted the importance of financial health to all Indonesians.
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Key Priorities
Following the country visit, the UNSGSA identified three strategic priorities to deepen financial health and ensure better customer outcomes in Indonesia.
- Embrace Financial Health as a National Priority
President Prabowo has already announced that he will establish a national council for financial health, which is an excellent first step. Indonesia will benefit from a national coalition that aligns government, regulators, and private-sector actors to establish a shared understanding of financial health, set up mechanisms to measure the financial well-being of Indonesian households, and deliver measurable improvements in financial health for all Indonesians. The national council can also explore a coordinated strategy to confront the risks that most directly undermine people’s financial security, including scams, fraud, and gambling.
- Enable Innovation
It is important to take steps to accelerate innovation in Indonesia in a safe and secure manner. Regulators can issue clear guidance for developers of products and services and provide support for companies looking to scale innovations that will genuinely strengthen people’s financial health. These include everything from microinsurance with simple claims processes to long-term savings, pensions, and wealth-building tools designed for small, irregular contributions. Innovative financial products can help Indonesians, especially those who are often left out of the traditional financial system.
- Continue Work on Financial Inclusion
Millions of Indonesians, predominantly in rural areas, remain unbanked. As Indonesia pursues its financial health agenda, it is essential to close this gap and continue to advance the foundational elements of its financial inclusion agenda. This includes extending reliable connectivity, fully digitizing government-to-person payments, and accelerating the take up of Identitas Kependudukan Digital (IKD) to make it easier and safer for people to open accounts remotely. Advancing financial inclusion will require a robust and secure Open Finance framework that gives consumers control of their data and enables responsible data sharing. This will pave the way for more tailored and inclusive products that strengthen financial health and reduce risks of over-indebtedness.
UNSGSA Partners in Indonesia
UNSGSA Reference Group members supporting this mission included the United Nations Country Team, the World Bank, CGAP, the Gates Foundation, and the International Finance Corporation.