Indonesia's top economic ministers cannot agree on who gets a bank account

The government wants every Indonesian aged 17 and over to have a bank account. Its two most senior economic officials cannot agree on what that actually means. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and Airlangga Hartarto, the coordinating minister for economic affairs, have taken opposite positions on the plan in public. The argument is about scope: whether the new accounts go only to adults who have none today, or whether the scheme runs much wider than that. Nikkei Asia reads the split as a sign of how little the government's economic policy is settled before it is announced.

The goal has a name: financial inclusion, which means making sure ordinary people can reach basic banking instead of keeping cash at home. An account is how wages arrive, how state payments are received, how savings stay safe, and how a borrowing record begins. Opening tens of millions of them at once is not a small job. Banks have to check identity documents, staff the counters, and then carry the cost of accounts that may sit empty for years.

Scope is exactly where that cost is decided. A plan aimed only at adults who have no account is a targeted programme with a countable list of people. A plan covering everyone over 17 is a national exercise with a different price and a different timetable. Until the two ministers say the same thing, the banks that would do the work cannot know which plan to prepare for.

Why it matters

If you are one of the adults without an account, this is a scheme meant for you, but nothing about it is firm enough to act on: the rules, the timing and even who qualifies are still being argued over. Wait for one agreed version from the government before you trust any offer to sign you up. For anyone reading Indonesia from outside, the disagreement itself is the signal, because it repeats a pattern of announcements that arrive before the policy behind them is finished.