# Indonesia Wants Every Adult to Have a Bank Account, but Its Own Ministers Cannot Agree How > Indonesia is pushing a plan to give every citizen 17 and older a bank account, a sweeping financial inclusion push. But a public disagreement between Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto and Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa over the scale of the rollout is already testing how coordinated the policy really is. - Source: South East Money - Canonical URL: https://southeastmoney.id/article/indonesia-wants-every-adult-to-have-a-bank-account-but-its-own-ministers-cannot-agree-how - Author: Tim - Section: Policy - Published: 2026-09-11T07:59:58.590Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T07:59:58.590Z - Tags: Indonesia, Airlangga Hartarto, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, financial inclusion, banking, economic policy, Southeast Asia --- Indonesia is moving ahead with an ambitious financial inclusion plan aimed at giving every citizen aged 17 and older a bank account, a policy that would touch a huge share of the country's adult population in one stroke. Before the plan has even fully taken shape, though, two of the government's own economic ministers have publicly disagreed over how big it should actually be, an awkward start for a policy meant to project coordinated intent. The disagreement sits between Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto and Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, two of the most senior economic officials in Indonesia's cabinet. Reporting on the dispute frames it as a question of scale, specifically whether new accounts should be limited to adults over 17 who do not already have one, or whether the program should be defined more broadly. That distinction may sound narrow, but it changes everything about the program's cost, its logistics, and how many people it is actually meant to reach. ## Why the disagreement matters beyond optics A mass account opening program is not a small administrative exercise. It requires coordination across banks, regulators, and identity systems, and its price tag and complexity scale directly with how many people are covered. Two senior ministers disagreeing publicly over that scope, rather than resolving it before the policy is announced, points to a rollout still being negotiated in public rather than one arriving fully formed, a pattern that tends to unsettle both banks preparing to implement it and citizens trying to understand what it actually promises them. ## The bigger goal: closing the banking gap Whatever the final scope, the underlying goal is financial inclusion, bringing Indonesians who remain outside the formal banking system into it. Countries across Southeast Asia have pursued similar pushes for years, treating a bank account as the entry point for everything from digital payments to credit access to government subsidy distribution. Indonesia has already been building toward that ambition through its own domestic payment infrastructure efforts, and a universal account mandate would be a significant next step in that direction, if the government can settle on what the policy actually covers. ## A familiar tension in Indonesian policymaking The dispute also feeds a broader narrative that has followed the current government, concerns about consistency in how economic policy gets made and communicated. Big, ambitious announcements carry more weight when the officials responsible for delivering them are visibly aligned. A public disagreement over the basic scope of a flagship inclusion policy risks undercutting confidence in the plan before implementation has even begun, regardless of how sound the underlying goal is. ## What it means for the region If Indonesia does succeed in dramatically expanding bank account ownership, the effects would ripple beyond its own borders. Indonesia is Southeast Asia's largest economy and among its most populous, and a genuine leap in banking penetration there would reshape the addressable market for regional fintech firms, payment networks, and lenders looking to expand. For now, though, the more immediate story is a government still working out the details of its own signature financial inclusion push in full public view. --- Originally published by South East Money. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://southeastmoney.id/article/indonesia-wants-every-adult-to-have-a-bank-account-but-its-own-ministers-cannot-agree-how.