The World Bank is supporting abranchless banking program in Indonesiawith a pilot project to beginin Bali.The program will be jointly implementedby the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the
World Bank; Bank Sinar Harapan, amember company of Bank Mandiri;and cellular operator AXIS.IFC Access to Finance program manager Roger Thomas Moyes said that the branchless banking program
was expected to ease access to banking services and reach potential banking consumers that do not currently have access to bank branches.Moyes said the amount of people using banks in Indonesia remains quite low compared to its neighbors.Despite the fact that Indonesian banking has existed for at least 100 years, only 60 million people of Indonesia’s total population of 240 million people have bank accounts, he said.This is in stark contrast to the rapid growth of cellular phone users in t...