The Gates Foundation and the World Bank have been long-term strategic partners in supporting financial inclusion agenda globally. In Indonesia, grant funding from the Gates Foundation’s Inclusive Financial Systems program has driven significant national reforms, unlocking and amplifying the World Bank’s broader commitment of over $2.1 billion in financial sector policy lending to Indonesia.

Still, a lot remains to be done to continue to increase the depth of Indonesia’s financial system and support a safe, inclusive, and vibrant financial services ecosystem that brings benefit to women and low-income communities.

The new phase of the Inclusive Finance Program aims to further increase depth, efficiency, and resilience of the financial sector in Indonesia. It will contribute to the development of financial infrastructure to expand savings accounts, a credit reporting system to expand credit accounts, piloting and testing of innovative credit products, and improved supervision (Suptech) to ensure responsible credit expansion, with a particular focus on women and vulnerable communities.

Most importantly, the new program aims to leverage US$ 2.75 billion in loan funding across the World Bank operations to maximize the donor’s value for money and significantly amplify development impact.

The impact of the partnership extends beyond Indonesia, shaping the World Bank’s approaches in the region and influencing the global financial inclusion agenda, also supported by Gates Foundation through the F4D Umbrella.

Earlier this year, Gates Foundation has made an additional contribution to support global research on digital financial services and a multi-country financial consumer protection / market conduct supervision technical assistance program to help governments identify and mitigate key risks associated with digital finance.