IDX president director Inarno Djajadi said on Tuesday that the bourse aimed to increase the number of new retail investors by 22 percent next year, lower than the growth recorded so far this year. As of Nov. 19, the Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI) had recorded a 42.19 percent increase in retail investors to 3.53 million.

“The work-from-home order has encouraged people to try investing their funds in the capital market, so we believe the number of investors can increase further next year,” Inarno said during a virtual press event. “However, this pandemic is not over yet so we need to be conservative.”

Pandemic fears have battered the domestic stock market. The bourse’s main gauge, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), crashed to 3,937 in March, its lowest level in more than five years, as investors dumped risky assets. Since then, the index has made back some of its losses and is now down 8.35 percent year to date (ytd).

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The JCI had jumped 0.85 percent as of 12:51 p.m. Jakarta time on Wednesday.

The bourse is also targeting an average daily turnover of Rp 8.8 trillion (US$628.6 million) in 2021, as it expects high volatility to continue to next year, Inarno said. The figure is slightly higher than the Rp 8.4 trillion in average daily turnover so far this year.

The IDX also aims to list at least 30 new companies next year, fewer than the 46 companies that, as of the end of November, had gone public on the exchange.

“However, we are looking for the 30 new listed companies next year to be big ones,” Inarno said.

Data from Deloitte Indonesia shows that 40 of the 46 companies listed in 2020 were small or medium enterprises. As a result, the bourse has raised only $352 million in funds this year, about a third of the 2019 figure of $1.05 billion.

Inarno added that the exchange was hoping to launch electronic initial public offerings (e-IPOs) next year.

Financial Services Authority (OJK) capital market monitoring head Luthfy Zain Fuady said the initiative was meant to accommodate the growing number of retail investors in the country’s stock market.

Read also: The rise of the retail investor: A new force in Indonesia’s pandemic-hit stock market

“The e-IPO will allow for a minimum allotment for retail investors so they won’t be discouraged when buying stocks in the primary market,” he said.

IDX assessment director I Gede Nyoman Yetna added that the e-IPO mechanism would help create fair pricing for IPOs and prevent mark-ups that would inflate the share price on the primary market.

In addition to accommodating retail investors, the OJK is also committed to increasing its protection of all investors through a disgorgement fund that is expected to launch this month.

Disgorgement is the legally mandated repayment of funds received through illegal means.

The fund will act as a protection scheme for investors, similar to that of the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It will seek to cushion the losses of innocent parties as a result of financial crimes.

Read also: Despite pandemic, Indonesian companies pursue IPOs

Luthfy of the OJK said the authority had partnered with the Finance Ministry’s State Assets Directorate General (DJKN) and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to help with the fund’s establishment.

“The DJKN will assist us with auctioning the wrongdoers’ assets, while the AGO will help us with the legal enforcement of the funds,” he said.

The OJK expects the disgorgement fund to be in place by May or June of next year.

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