Photo Credit: Tech In Asia - Alexander Rusli (center left), CEO of Indosat

Indonesian telco company Indosat, in collaboration with Qatar National Bank (QNB), launched a mobile money ATM card this week, CNN Indonesia reports. The card is integrated with Indosat’s ewallet feature Dompetku, which now claims to be the first mobile money provider in Indonesia with a parallel ATM service feature.

The service uses the customer’s mobile number as a wallet account while QNB connects the number to Indonesia’s ATM Bersama network. “This will provide benefits to customers, particularly to ease the withdrawal of cash,” president director and CEO of Indosat Alexander Rusli told CNN Indonesia earlier this week.

Taping the hidden markets of the un-banked

The new service is also part of a strategy to improve the quality of ATM access for Indosat’s unbanked consumers. Solutions like this are relevant in Indonesia, as 80 percent of the population currently have no bank accounts, while mobile phone penetration is going through the roof.

“Mobile money in Indonesia has been running for a while. Dompetku strives to be an option for the customer to be able to make transactions more flexible,” said Rusli. With the newly launched ATM service, Dompetku can be used in a variety of transactions, including bill payment, online shopping, mobile credit top-ups, and electronic money transfers across mobile operators.

The ATM cards can also be used in a variety of places such as at public transportation stops and convenient stores like Alfamart, Indomaret and 7-Eleven. Rusli says the service is a solution that will also help the government expand future emoney services in Indonesia.

This post was originally published on Tech In Asia