1. Why don’t people save more in banking-agent? Evidence from Laku Pandai Program in Indonesia
Prani Sastiono (LPEM FEB UI) and Chaikal Nuryakin (LPEM FEB UI)

In the past decade, the Government of Indonesia has exerted significant efforts to increase access to formal financial services, particularly by encouraging branchless banking services for financial inclusion (Layanan Keuangan Tanpa Kantor Dalam Rangka Keuangan Inklusif/Laku Pandai). Branchless banking allows banks to penetrate remote and rural areas through their representative agents. However, despite the massive increase in the number of Laku Pandai (branchless banking) agents, the increase in the number of accounts opened per agent and the amount of savings put in the account per agent did not increase as extensively. This webinar will discuss a study that aims to identify factors that can potentially increase Laku Pandai’s account ownership and savings both on the demand and supply-side and formulate possible interventions that can potentially increase account ownership and savings.

2. Listen to your wife when it comes to saving decision: women’s bargaining power and household saving outcome in Indonesia
Sulistiadi Dono Iskandar (LPEM FEB UI) and Faradina Maizar (LPEM FEB UI)

Despite many advantages of women’s higher role in literature, the Government of Indonesia seems to lack commitment in addressing women empowerment issues as their priority agenda. Studies suggest that having more empowered women in our society will lead to better financial outcomes, such as savings, for the household. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic where people could lose their source of income easily due to social restriction, having a society with a higher saving level is essential. By exploiting three waves (2000, 2007, 2014) of Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) data and employing Fixed-Effect panel data analysis, this study found that a limited increase in the role of a wife in the household’s financial decision-making process will lead to a higher level of saving outcome, thus provide more resilience society toward the pandemic situation.

Tuesday, 18 May 2021, 10.00-12.00 WIB

Participate on Zoom (registration required): http://bit.ly/fkp18may
Follow on YouTube http://bit.ly/fkp-live

Thumbnail photo by bady abbas on Unsplash