Thesis Title
Digital wallets as a vector for financial inclusion? The case of Indonesia

Research Description
Oliver’s research project focuses on the adoption of digital wallets in Indonesia: how the vectors of adoption (people and institutions) interact and the extent to which they enable cashless transactions. Indonesia’s financial inclusion rate grew from 48.86% in 2017 to just 51.76% in 2021. Compared to neighbouring ASEAN nations, this rate of growth is extraordinarily slow. The research asks, what’s driving the digital wallet adoption in Indonesia? A key selling point of digital wallets is “ease and convenience”, but if this is the case why do 47% of e-wallet users have 3 or more digital wallets on their smartphone? Oliver seeks to understand the role of digital wallets in times of crises; how equipped are e-wallets to handle crises? To what extent can digitalisation address cultural barriers to financial inclusion? 42% of Indonesians who do not have an account at a formal financial institution choose not to because someone in their family already has one and 6% of Indonesians who don’t have an account at a formal financial institution choose not to because of religious reasons. Given the heterogeneity of Indonesia, what are fintech firms doing to address these cultural barriers?

Supervisors
Prof Janet Roitman, RMIT University
Dr Tim Kooijmans, RMIT University