Indonesia's telecommunication operators and banks need to strengthen cooperation in providing Internet banking services in anticipation of the growing number of Internet users in the country, according to an Internet association.

“Stronger cooperation between telecommunication companies and the lenders in Internet banking services will generate more creative ideas that will eventually benefit the country,” said Ferrij Lumoring, secretary-general of the Indonesian Mobile and Online Content Provider Association (IMOCA).

Today, telecommunication companies and banks have developed cooperations in Internet banking in which the former provides networks and the latter offers the banking system.

However, the two parties have not capitalised on the growing number of Internet users to improve their cooperation, Ferrij said.

According to him, there is a tendency for telecomunication firms and banks to not work together fearing that increased cooperation would hurt their individual profits.

“It seems that they [telecommunication firms and banks] are competing with each other,” said Ferrij.

Meanwhile, state-owned lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) director Sri Purwanto said he had no objections to the idea of improving cooperation in

Internet banking as long as it benefited those involved.

According to him, e-banking was showing positive growth in the country and would continue to do so in the future.

“I am optimistic that the growth of e-banking will be sustainable in the years to come due to the positive trend of rising Internet users,” Sri added.

In BTN, e-banking transactions have grown on average 41.5 per cent every year. Additionally, e-banking transactions now account for 74.2 per cent of all transactions at BTN.

“We predict that e-banking transactions in BTN will grow by 50 per cent this year,” said Sri.

According to Mark Plus Inside Netizen Survey, the number of Internet users in Indonesia grew to 74.57 million in 2013, up 22 per cent from 62 million people in the previous year.

The survey forecast that the number of Indonesian netizens would grow to 107 million this year and to 139 million people in 2015.

However, of total netizens in the country, the number using e-banking services remains proportionally small, because most people are not yet familiar with the notion of moving money online.

“It is our job to make people more familiar with Internet banking,” said Sri. "But I am upbeat that [in the future] e-banking will be a mandatory not just optional choice. E-banking can meet the higher demands of efficiency for money transactions in the country.”