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Mutual fund players turn to e-marketplaces to reach individual investors
To get more young Indonesians to invest in mutual funds, industry players are looking to tech-based startups, such as e-marketplaces Bukalapak and Tokopedia, which have a far greater reach than brick and mortar stores.
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The Financial Services Authority (OJK) aims to get more individuals to invest in mutual funds. (Shutterstock/JohnKwan)
T
o get more young Indonesians to invest in mutual funds, industry players are looking to tech-based startups, such as e-marketplace unicorns Bukalapak and Tokopedia, which have a far greater reach than brick and mortar stores.
“We are focused on developing retail investment and, given our country’s archipelagic geography, traditional methods such as face-to-face meetings and seminars will be greatly enhanced by technology,” said Mutual Funds and Investments Association (APDRI) chairman Prihatmo Hari Mulyanto.
Prihatmo told reporters at the launch of a financial literacy campaign in Jakarta on Monday that institutional investors still dominated the domestic mutual funds market but that, going forward, the association would focus on individual investors.
“We are talking with many other start-ups,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Financial Services Authority (OJK) investment management director Sujanto said on Monday that the number of Indonesian mutual fund investors had surpassed 1.5 million individuals as of November 14, up 50.7 percent from 995,510 investors recorded last year, which indicated a growing appetite for such financial products.
“But we are not satisfied, because [local investors] only represent 0.8 percent of the population. Among ASEAN countries, that figure goes up to 20 percent of the population,” he said.
OJK data also show that Indonesia had more than Rp 553.27 trillion (US$39.45 billion) in assets under management in October, up 9.1 percent from the same month last year.
