ADB Backs Indonesia With $650 Million to Expand Markets and Safer Digital Finance

ADB Country Director for Indonesia Bobur Alimov emphasized that connection, saying, “When businesses can access financing more easily, they can invest, expand, and create jobs.”

Indonesia's efforts to give businesses more financing options and people safer access to digital financial services have received a $650 million commitment from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The bank has approved the first subprogram of the Financial Market Deepening Program, supporting reforms to strengthen capital markets, modernize digital finance and attract private investment into environmentally sustainable projects. The package connects changes in financial regulation and market infrastructure with everyday needs, from funding business expansion to helping people save with greater confidence.

Opening more routes for businesses to raise money

Indonesia is working to deepen its capital markets so businesses can draw on a broader range of investment sources and reduce their reliance on bank financing. In 2025, the country's stock market stood at 66.4% of gross domestic product, a figure that highlights room for further market development and wider investor participation. The program will support securities lending, liquidity providers and bond market development to improve market liquidity, transparency and efficiency, helping create stronger conditions for investment and economic growth.

For businesses, easier access to financing can influence whether an expansion goes ahead, new equipment is purchased, or additional workers are hired. ADB Country Director for Indonesia Bobur Alimov emphasized that connection, saying, "When businesses can access financing more easily, they can invest, expand, and create jobs." The reforms address the financial system behind those decisions, supporting markets that can bring more investors and businesses together and mobilize capital for productive activity.

Building confidence in digital financial services

Safer digital finance forms another major part of the program, with reforms covering a stronger regulatory framework for digital assets, enhanced cybersecurity standards and greater consumer protection. These measures support innovation alongside safeguards for people using financial services, recognizing that wider access needs to come with confidence in the systems handling money and personal information. Modernizing the digital financial ecosystem is one of the program's three central priorities, together with improving market efficiency and attracting sustainable investment.

Alimov linked secure digital services with people's ability to save and build their financial futures, describing the program as support for a financial system that serves the public and attracts investment for sustainable development. Stronger oversight and protection measures will help establish the conditions for safe digital financial activity as services evolve. The reforms place users' interests within the wider effort to modernize Indonesia's financial sector and encourage responsible innovation.

Directing private investment toward sustainable development

The sustainable and transition finance measures will strengthen regulations and market infrastructure, expand Indonesia's sustainable finance taxonomy and encourage green lending. The taxonomy provides a framework for classifying sustainable economic activities, helping guide financing decisions. Reducing barriers to issuing sustainable finance instruments is another part of the package, supporting efforts to channel more private capital into environmentally sustainable projects and strengthen the financial environment for transition investment.

The $650 million first subprogram builds on ADB's earlier work through the Financial Market Development and Inclusion Program and the Promoting Innovative Financial Inclusion Program, continuing its support for Indonesia's financial sector and financial market development across ASEAN. The operation aligns with Indonesia's National Medium-Term Development Plan 2025–2029 and Golden Indonesia Vision 2045, connecting immediate market reforms with the country's longer-term development priorities. Its combined focus on capital markets, digital services and sustainable finance supports a broader financial system capable of meeting business, household and investment needs.