Ayoconnect, Southeast Asia's largest open finance platform, and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Indonesia’s largest bank by total assets, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today to leverage Ayoconnect’s open finance technology in BRI’s digital banking solutions with the intention to generate greater financial inclusivity and economic growth in the world’s fourth largest country by population. 

Ayoconnect’s open finance platform makes it easier, faster and more economic for BRI and its business customers to launch new financial services, accelerating the availability of affordable access to finance for all Indonesian citizens. Southeast Asia continues to experience transformational economic growth but financial infrastructure remains a significant challenge to building an inclusive financial system. In Indonesia over 50% of the population does not have a bank account. 

The MOU is built on and extends the existing collaboration between Ayoconnect and BRI on a new direct debit capability that allows BRI’s merchant partners to directly deduct payments from their customers’ bank accounts. Direct debit is expected to be launched later in the year, and would mark the first-ever direct debit payment product for the Indonesian market, simplifying operations for banks, improving cash-flow and working capital for companies, and making life simpler and more convenient for people in their daily lives.

Ayoconnect has pioneered open finance in Indonesia. It focuses on the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), as a proven, low-cost, rapid way to connect banks, companies, government, and people. Instead of the time and cost of building or buying new technology, APIs allow companies of any size to rapidly launch financial products such as phone top-up, utilities payments, embedded insurance, and auto-billing.

Arga Nugraha, BRI’s Managing Director of Digital and Information Technology Bank Rakyat Indonesia, comments: "BRI continues its digital transformation journey on our mission to become the most valuable banking group in Southeast Asia and a champion of financial inclusion. The collaboration between BRI and Ayoconnect reflects our commitment to collaborate and grow together in delivering digital financial services that are accessible, answering to the market needs and rapid change of the digital era.”

The partnership lets Ayoconnect leverage BRI’s open banking APIs for uses such as cardless cash withdrawals, e-money top up, transaction history, and more, enabling BRI to launch innovative new digital services and improve customer experience. In addition, Ayoconnect’s ecosystem partners will now be able to utilize these APIs to provide B2B and B2C services more easily and quickly. Ayoconnect's open banking API is part of its larger open finance ecosystem, which aims to interconnect not only Indonesia's banked population but also its underbanked and unbanked population.

Ayoconnect’s CEO and Founder Jakob Rost says: “By collaborating more closely with BRI, one of Indonesia’s largest banks with decades of experience and insight, we are in a better position to identify solutions to benefit the Indonesian economy and then make them available to businesses and consumers. Ayoconnect’s API-led approach means banks and businesses can interconnect their systems easily, quickly and economically. Customers get access to financial services that are more seamless and affordable and companies can launch financial features within a few weeks, directly contributing to new revenue and growth.”

Founded in 2016, Ayoconnect has raised a total of US$30 million in funding from leading venture capital firms such as Tiger Global, PayU, and BRI Ventures, BRI's corporate venture capital unit. Ayoconnect processes 500 million API hits annually from over 200 companies.