The chair of Indonesia’s chief financial regulator has announced plans to establish the country’s first ‘financial information services centre’ tasked with accelerating recovery from cyber attack and training security personnel in mitigating digital threats.

Wimboh Santoso, chair of Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority’s (OJK) board of commissioners, revealed plans for the cybersecurity centre at the International Good Practices on Cybersecurity Preparedness seminar in Washington DC on 18 October. The seminar was one of the featured events of the World Bank Group – International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings.

In addition to the financial information centre, the OJK has joined a common initiative within Indonesia to establish a national cyber body together with a number of ministries and state agencies, including the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the Ministry of Defense, the Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal and Security Affairs, and the Police.

During his presentation, Santoso warned attendees of the increased exposure faced by the financial services to cyber attack, particularly as ICT takes greater precedence within the industry.

He prioritised Indonesia’s financial services industry as “important infrastructure that needs to be guarded against security threats that come from the virtual world” and said that each country had an obligation to raise awareness of cyber risks by reinforcing management of operating risks related to information technology.

The OKJ chief further urged national governments to adopt a global approach to cybersecurity, resisting cyber threats that are themselves unbound by national borders.

“It is not possible for a country to carry out preventive efforts against cyber attacks single-handedly; instead, there should be global initiatives to fight them, since hackers behind those attacks operate beyond borders,” Santoso said.

Santoso also raised concerns over environmental degradation and climate change and their likely disruptive impact on global financial markets. He urged states to join a global effort to shore up sustainable finance models and development goals to prevent wholesale financial collapse. 

“There should be a global roadmap on sustainable finance, which is expected to accelerate funding for sustainable development goals (SDGs) by assigning a larger role to the private sector at a global level,” Santoso said.

For states to maintain sustainable financial development, Santoso advised countries to devise a national strategy that encompasses various agencies, scholars, the financial services industry and the business sector, and to encourage them to establish a collective commitment and collaboration strategy with one another.

The OJK has been proved a keen promoter of sustainable finance models across the archipelago, particularly in a country ravaged by deforestation and pollution.

In December 2014, the regulator issued a Roadmap for Sustainable Finance in Indonesia designed to define the position to be achieved in relation to sustainable finance in mid-term (2015-2019) and long-term (2015-2024) for the financial services industry under OJK’s supervision and to set and establish milestones for programs to improve sustainable finance.

The Roadmap is considered unique internationally as a systematic plan grown out of a decade of development of sustainable finance in Indonesia, according to a report by the World Bank.