The Financial Services Authority (OJK) officially launched a mobile app version of its banking regulation digital library on Tuesday in an effort to increase the public accessibility of the extensive database.

The platform, called the Online Banking Regulation Information System (SIKePO), aims to provide a complete, up-to-date and easy-to-use database as many stakeholders have found banking regulations confusing and ever-changing, OJK commissioner for banking supervision Heru Kristiyana said on Tuesday. 

“The banking ecosystem, ranging from its products and services to infrastructure, has been developing rapidly, accompanied by risks that are growing in complexity. Regulations have also changed quickly along with the development of the businesses,” Heru said during the virtual launch of SIKePO.

“We have recognized that there need to be tools to help make it easier for stakeholders to find regulations, understand them and, most importantly, comply with them,” Heru added, noting that the OJK had found that more violations were the result of a lack of understanding of regulations than of compliance avoidance. 

The banking industry is a highly regulated industry as it plays a crucial role in maintaining the safety and stability of the financial sector.

According to data from the SIKePO app, there are 252 regulations on conventional banks and 380 on sharia banks, including regulations for regional banks and sharia business units.

The OJK has developed the digital database over the past six years. From 2014 to 2015, the agency started to codify Indonesia’s banking regulations, arranging the regulations into a systematic database and classifying them into particular topics.

In 2016, the OJK began the development of the SIKePO platform, and in the following year, the system went online as a public website.

The mobile application has been available for use since 2019 but was officially launched on Tuesday. It is now available for download through the App Store and Google Play under the name SIKePO OJK and has seen more than 1,000 downloads on the latter platform.

Through the platform, users gain access to codified banking regulations based on seven classifications: institutional, business activity, principle of prudence, accounting reports and standards, banking supervision, consumer protection and miscellaneous. 

The app also features regulations’ records to detail whether a recent regulation overrides previous ones or changes parts of them. In addition, the app contains executive summaries of regulations and infographics. 

OJK executive director of banking research and regulation Anung Herlianto reported at the launch event that as of Sept. 7, or about nine months since the soft launch of the mobile application, the platform had been accessed almost 1.5 million times with a daily average of 4,000 views.

“A spike in daily access generally occurs when the OJK releases new regulations,” Anung said, adding that he believed access would increase after the launch event. The application saw more than 6,500 visitors on Tuesday afternoon after the event.

OJK Regulations (POJK) were the most accessed type of regulation, making up 70 percent of total views between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8. OJK circular letters (SEOJK) were accessed more than 1,000 times during the same period.