Indonesian mutual funds platform Bareksa is teaming up with Federal International Finance (FIF), a subsidiary of the Indonesian conglomerate Astra Group, to develop a corporate bonds marketplace for the retail segment, according to an announcement on Bareksa’s website.
Corporate bonds are debt obligations issued by private and public corporations. This type of investment is quite popular among less experienced investors, especially because they are considered lower risk than investing in shares.
The firms claim this online corporate bonds marketplace is the first in Indonesia.
The collaboration is part of Bareksa’s effort to provide access to corporate bond investments to the wider public. Bareksa says it currently has 17,000 registered customers who invest in government bonds and retail sukuk (Shariah-compliant bonds) with a total investment of IDR 230 billion (USD 15.9 million).
Bareksa claims to be the largest integrated financial and investment marketplace in Indonesia. The company obtained its license as a mutual fund sales agent from the Indonesian financial services authority (OJK) in 2016. It was appointed as the online distribution partner of the country’s Finance Ministry in 2018.
The platform says it’s currently offering more than 212 mutual fund products from 43 investment managers in Indonesia and has more than 510.000 customers, which represents around 30% of the total customers in the industry. By is own account, total investments via Bareksa have reached over IDR 2.6 trillion (USD 180.4 billion). Bareksa currently has IDR 1.1 trillion (USD 76.34 billion) assets under management.