According to KPMG (2014), there are 80% Indonesian population living
under poor condition. So, they have no saving, neither access to business loan.
In overcoming this matter, various efforts are being done by the Indonesian
Goverment, in order to improve financial inclusion in Indonesia. One of the
efforts is Layanan Keuangan Tanpa Kantor dalam Rangka Keuangan Inklusif (Laku
Pandai; Non-office Financial Services in The Framework of Finance Inclusion) or
branchless banking; and Layanan Keuangan Digital (LKD; Digital Financial Services).
When The National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) was launched on
November 18, 2016, the president of Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, was
targetting 75% of financial inclusion in 2019. An ambitious target, judging
from the data in 2014, said that Indonesian index of financial inclusion was
only 36%. 

PT. Bank Mandiri, (Persero) Tbk. or BMRI (IDX) as a member of
State-Owned Banks Association (Himpunan Bank milik Negara; HIMBARA), is obliged
to support the achievement of financial inclusion target that has been set.
BMRI has implemented branchless banking concept through Bank Sinar Harapan Bali
(BSHB), a subsidiary of BMRI. BSHB cooperates with International Finance
Corporation (IFC) and one of telecommunication network and service provider, to
market a saving product called “Sinar Sip”. The program was running quite well
as the saving amount increased. Yet the implementation of that branchless
banking was not running maximally, since Bank of Indonesia had not acknowledged
the bank agent and prohibited non-bank business entities, like small shops or
stores, giving banking service. Among other things are opening of accounts,
transfers, deposits and withdrawals. Meanwhile the account opening was only
possibly done by bank officers by following the tight principle of “know your
customer” (KYC).  The implementation of branchless banking was an
uneasy and challenging. Some of the reasons are the geographical condition of
Indonesia, education level and economics gap, as well as lucrative loan sharks
practices amongst the poor. A research by LPEM Universitas Indonesia, one of
the leading universities in Indonesia, in December 2016 - January 2017, shows
that more than 90% of digital financial services and branchless banking users
are bank customers who already had bank accounts. Whereas this financial
inclusion program was mainly aimed at capturing people who have no access to
formal financial service.