Beyond access: Why digital financial literacy must anchor Indonesia’s fintech revolution

Indonesia has become one of the most dynamic financial technology markets in the emerging world, and its policy establishment has celebrated each new milestone in digital adoption as a victory for financial inclusion. In this commentary, I argue that this celebration was premature. Evidence increasingly suggests that access has outpaced capability: Indonesians are acquiring digital financial services faster than they are acquiring the digital financial literacy required to use them safely and productively. Drawing on recent Indonesian empirical studies and the international literature, I make three claims. First, financial literacy exerts no direct effect on fintech adoption in Indonesia, operating only indirectly through user innovativeness, meaning that adoption can flourish among the financially illiterate. Second, digital financial literacy is a construct distinct from traditional financial literacy, with independent effects on saving behavior, financial inclusion, and financial well-being. Third, the gains from capability building are largest precisely for the groups—women, youth, and low-income households—whom adoption-centric policy treats as passive beneficiaries. I conclude that Indonesia’s regulatory agenda must be rebalanced: away from adoption metrics as ends in themselves, and toward a dual strategy in which digital financial literacy anchors rather than trails the fintech revolution.