E Wallet Syariah
E Wallet Syariah
E Wallet Syariah
Corresponding Author:
Nama Penulis: Firsty Izzata Bella
E-mail: firsty.izzata.bella19@feb.unair.ac.id
Abstract
The objective of this research is to propose a strategy to strengthen the
islamic digital wallet or electronic wallet (e-wallet) in Indonesia to
compete with its conventional counterparts. Qualitative research methods
with study literature were chosen to explore previous research that had
been discussed on e-wallets particularly from the Islamic perspective both
at global and national levels through reputable journals, reports, and
other supportive documents. The results depicted that the Islamic e-wallet
can be optimized through four points, namely promotion, education,
collaboration, and trust but remained fulfilling sharia compliance so that
the values of Islamic teachings are not vanished. Promotions in the form of
cashback can be substituted for points to be converted into donations
through the Islamic crowdfunding platform. Education can be improved
through social media platforms. The way is by coordinating with Islamic
public figures, collaboration with merchants and service providers. Finally
increasing trust by safeguarding user data and funds.
Abstrak
Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengusulkan strategi untuk
memperkuat dompet digital syariah atau dompet elektronik (e-wallet)
di Indonesia agar dapat bersaing dengan mitra konvensional. Metode
penelitian kualitatif dengan studi literatur dipilih untuk mendalami
penelitian-penelitian terdahulu yang telah dibahas mengenai e-wallet,
khususnya dari perspektif Islam baik di tingkat global maupun nasional
melalui jurnal, laporan, dan dokumen pendukung lainnya yang
bereputasi baik. Hasil penelitian menggambarkan bahwa e-wallet Islami
dapat dioptimalkan melalui empat poin yaitu promosi, edukasi,
kolaborasi, dan amanah namun tetap memenuhi syariah sehingga nilai-
nilai ajaran Islam tidak sirna. Promosi dalam bentuk cashback dapat
disubstitusikan poin yang akan diubah menjadi donasi melalui platform
crowdfunding Islami. Edukasi dapat ditingkatkan melalui platform media
sosial. Cara yang dapat dilakukan yaitu berkoordinasi dengan tokoh
EL DINAR Volume 9, No. 2, Tahun 2021 | 94
Firsty Izzata Bella: Strengthening the Islamic Digital Payment System
INTRODUCTION
The Global Islamic Economy Report 2019/2020 shows that Indonesia is
ranked 5th as the country with the world's best Islamic finance indicators,
indicating that there is a significant increase which previously positioned in
the 10th in 2018. One of the factors supporting this is the strengthening of
the halal economy in each sector formulated through the Halal Economy
Masterplan of 2019-2024. It is possible to be achieved since Indonesia has
the biggest Muslim population reaching around 87% of 273 million people,
this is a potential market share for sharia-based products and services,
including Islamic digital payment systems such as e-money or e-wallet.
Indonesia, like other countries that have preceded it, is starting to move
towards a cashless society by maximizing the use of digital payment systems
to reduce cash payments. It was recorded on the official website of Bank
Indonesia (BI), that in 2020 there were 51 Electronic Money (BI, 2020a)
issuer companies with an average overall transaction from January to May
2020 reaching IDR 15 trillion (BI, 2020b).
Figure 1. is the chart shows E-Money transaction in Indonesia according
to its nominal and volume from 2013 to 2019.
From the Figure 1, it can be seen that both the nominal and volume of E-
Money transaction in Indonesia has grown rapidly over the years with a
significant increase in 2019 that reach almost 400% or four times higher
from the previous year. The data indicates that Indonesian people are in the
process of moving towards cashless society as other countries in the world.
Moreover, it is also depicted that most Indonesian people especially those
who live in the city already reduce the cash-payment.
The data as disclosed above becomes an opportunity for sharia finance
to broadcast Islamic economic teaching in Indonesia by issuing sharia-based
electronic money. This is carried out to avoid riba (interest) remained in the
existed e-money. At the end of 2019, under the state-owned company the
first and only Islamic payment service in Indonesia issued namely LinkAja
Syariah.
Unfortunately, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos Indonesia
(Ipsos, 2020), an independent company in the field of marketing research, it
is stated that LinkAja only gained a market share of 4%, the smallest
compared to Gopay (58%), OVO (29%), and Dana (9%) as other e-wallet
issuers. One of the reasons for a large amount of user loyalty to this type of
digital wallet (e-wallet) is the promotions, cashback, and discounts offered.
Therefore, this study will formulate a strengthening strategy for Islamic
Digital Wallet in order to dominate and strengthen the non-cash payment
system in Indonesia while still meeting sharia compliance refers to the DSN-
MUI Fatwa No. 116 of 2017 concerning Sharia Electronic Money.
The majority of previous studies are remained focusing on e-wallet in a
general concept such as a research conducted by Alam et al. (2021) in
Malaysia using a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opprtunities, and Threats)
analysis. Meanwhile, Indonesia as the biggest moslem populated country in
the world has a gerat potential to strengthen economic growth by optimizing
Financial technology (Darmansyah et al., 2020) including Islamic E-money as
a payment system . This phenomenon is supported by Aji et al. (2020)
research which concludes that Indonesian citizen are getting aware and
knowledgeable about riba in using E-Money. Additionally, the paper also
gives a suggestion for government to release the Sharia-compliant e-money
which currently available and will be discussed in this research. Moreover,
Ali et al. (2021) recommend to conduct a research on the field of Islamic
finance including digital payment in the form of e-wallet. However, despite of
several supporting data and findings from the earlier studies, this paper
aimed to fill the gap by proposing the idea to strengthen Indonesian Islamic
digital payment system or e-wallet which to the best of author’s knowledge
has not been discussed before.
LITERATURE REVIEW
From a historical perspective, cashless-based transactions have been
practiced for a long time precisely in the 1860s, when the Western Union
company introduced an electronic fund transfer system, then it was
continued in the late 1990s through the use of electronic checks and smart
cards to transfer money (Ulfi, 2020). Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the e-money
payment system emerged in 2009 in line with the issuance of Bank Indonesia
regulations, which at that time were still chip-based. The application/server-
based e-money was first born in 2017 through a product called Tcash by
Telkomsel eventually changed its name in 2019 to LinkAja (Putra et al.,
2020).
Janine Firpo, an author, investor, and social entrepreneur in her article
on the World Bank blog concludes the definition of e-money as a monetary
value that is stored electronically on receipts of funds, and which is used for
making payment transactions which can be held on cards, devices, or on a
server. Furthermore, he also specifically defines Electronic Wallet (e-wallet)
as the cash value that is stored on a card, phone, or other electronic devices,
including pre-paid cash. The term wallet is used because the card or phone is
considered a substitute for the cash normally carried in a person's wallet
(Firpo, 2009). Forrester Research, an American market research company,
defines a digital wallet payment as a non-cash payment that allows
customers to purchase their smartphones or other devices by acting as an
electronic wallet, digitizing payment information (Forrester Research, 2017).
There are at least six main advantages of e-wallet for customer (Bakar
et al., 2020): first, E-wallet is digital payments for a safer, cashless, and
efficient transaction, second, Ease of transaction tracking to monitor user
expenses because it provides a record for every transaction, third, E-wallet
provides user-friendly cash reload system using cash, debit/credit card, and
bank transfer, fourth, E-wallet is backed by a money-back guarantee system
by a provider. Therefore, users can perform a payment process confidently
with enhanced security features. Fifth, E-wallet provides a money transfer
process that covers a broad range of products and services. The vast network
of e-wallet payments makes a better user experience for payment
transactions. Lastly, the E-wallet payment method also supports peer fund
transfers that enable smooth cash movement among users of the e-wallet
system.
METHOD
The research applied a qualitative approach to discover in-depth
insights on the phenomenon of interest (Yin, 2014), which was specifically
for nominal data on electronic money transactions from 7 years ago, 2013-
2019, it can be seen that there has been a very large increase, namely 715%
or 70 times, which initially amounted to IDR 2 million in 2013 to IDR 145
million in 2019 (BI, 2020b).
halalness of the product and not excessive (tabzir), so that all transactions
must be carried out fairly (Amelia et al., 2020). This is as stated in the QS. Al-
Isra 'verse 26 which reads:
ِ َو ٰا
َّ ت ذَا ْالقُ ْز ٰبى َحقَّهٗ َو ْال ِم ْس ِكيْنَ َوابْنَ ال
سبِ ْي ِل َو ََل تُبَذّ ِْر ت َ ْب ِذي ًْزا
“And give the relative his right, and [also] the poor and the traveler,
and do not spend wastefully.” (QS. Al-Isra:26)
LinkAja Syariah, issued by PT. Fintek Karya Nusantara, has become the
first and only sharia e-wallet product in Indonesia since the end of 2019. The
difference between LinkAja Syariah and LinkAja (conventional) and other e-
wallets that have been circulating are first, the transactions without usury
and already pocketing DSN MUI and BI certificates, second, funds are
collected at Islamic banks, third, the payment is accepted at all LinkAja
merchants according to sharia regulations, and last, fill in balances from and
to all Banks, including Sharia Banks. The certificates is showed by Figure 3.
Keuangan Syariah” (KNEKS) with the aim of advancing the sharia economy in
Indonesia, one of which is one of the main priorities of increasing the
efficiency of Islamic finance (Komite Nasional Keuangan Syariah, 2018). Even
so, Islamic e-money must certainly meet Islamic business ethics which
consists of four axioms (Zulni & Achiria, 2020), namely: 1) Unity, without
discriminating against ethnicity, religion, race and culture, 2) Justice or
balance, between its functions as a sale and purchase transaction and social
funds. , 3) Free will, namely working with halal merchants to get the pleasure
of Allah, and 4) Responsibility for funds and user data.
Supplementary to this, the features offered by LinkAja Syariah are fairly
complete, such as the ZISWAF (collection & distribution) ecosystem, mosque-
based economic empowerment, digitization of Islamic boarding schools and
SMEs, investment and sharia insurance, and Umrah / Haj payments, although
some of them are still in the process and will be coming soon.
Promotion
Several researchs show that promotional variables including
advertisements, discounts, membership points, and rewards are the
main attraction for users, especially in choosing which payment
products (e-wallets) to use (Susanto et al, 2020; Utami, 2019) . Hence, it
is important for LinkAja Syariah products to increase promotion
through advertisements, especially on various social media as well as
offering offers in the form of discounts and cashback or points. This is
supported by other studies which conclude that consumers tend to
have a greater intention to switch to e-wallet products if the cashback
offered is greater than its competitors (Ulfi, 2020).
In contrast, as stipulated in the DSN-MUI Fatwa No. 116 of 2017
concerning Islamic Electronic Money states that cashback or discounts
given to customers must be given by merchants and not by card issuers.
Then the form of cashback can be replaced with points given by the
seller, which can then be donated via crowdfunding platforms such as
Kitabisa, Ammana, and so on. Ergo, the points given can also be used as
a seller as a Corporate Social Responsibility program.
Besides, including in terms of promotion that is user-friendly, as
research says that when users have difficulty using e-money, there is
Education
Another important thing that is the main point for Islamic Digital
Payment to be widely used by the community is to increase public
literacy about sharia financial studies to always prioritize the use of
sharia-based financial services over conventional ones. Although the
results of a study indicate that the Muslim community has started to
have awareness and already understands the practice of ribawi (Aji et
al., 2020), the object of this research is dominated by students and has
not been able to represent all Muslims at every level of society in
Indonesia.
The education and seminar can be in the form of campaigns and
collaboration with stakeholders, policymakers, government, and
influencers on social media to always echo the sharia e-wallet. Many of
the studies show that campaigns or marketing through social media
have a big influence on society in their behavior (Jones et al, 2015;
Keegan & Rowley, 2017), especially with research conducted by We Are
Social and Hootsuite which states that as of January 2020 as many as
59%% of Indonesia's population or reaching 160 million people have
utilized social media from a population of 272.1 million Indonesians,
with the five most used platforms, namely Youtube, Whatsapp, and
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Hootsuite, 2020).
From the statistics above, it is clear that the strategy that must be
taken through education is the main way to utilize the digital platform
that is most widely used by the people of Indonesia, with that, Islamic
financial inclusion, one of which is the use of Islamic e-wallets, can be
increased and beat its conventional competitors. This strategy also
supported by Rafdinal & Senalasari (2021) which concluded that by
facilitating through videos on social media such as Youtube, Instagram,
Twitter etc, about the step-by-step instruction, the increase number of
user will be existed.
Collaboration
There are several of collaboration and cooperation that issuer can
do with various parties, such as with various merchants, especially
those with a strong customer base (Widyastuti et al., 2017). With the
involvement of several Sharia Banks, it is also expected that the fees
charged to cardholders such as top-up fees, transfers, etc. can be
minimized, so it is hoped that it will increase interest in using Islamic e-
money.
Other parties that can be used as collaboration partners are
Islamic public figures in promoting Islamic e-wallet products to
increase public awareness of the importance of using Islamic financial
services and provide peace and blessings in transactions. Moreover,
Sharia e-wallet can also coordinate with other business partners which
provided different halal products and services such as 212 Mart, sharia
hotel, and even Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This
collaboration must be existed in the form of infrastructure hence,
people can easily make a transaction using e-wallet (Alam et al., 2021)
To conclude, a beneficial collaboration can be made with Payment
Point Online Bank (PPOB), E-commerce, transportation, donation,
public service, and installment or loan as long as it meets Sharia
compliance. By increasing this strategy, it is hoped that the user can be
more attracted to utilize LinkAja Sayriah or the upcoming Islamic e-
wallet rather than the conventional one.
Trust
Alam et al. (2021) argued that protection, safety of the data, a
customer privacy and othes risks related to financial loss should be
taken into high consideration for all digital payment provider.
Moreover, a study conducted by Reskyana (2020) shows that the
reputation of a product and a publishing company is a major factor in
increasing the level of user confidence in continuing to use the LinkAja
e-wallet product which is then followed by mobility, security, and
customization variables. This is also supported by other research which
states that brand trust has a positive effect on brand commitment,
means that trust will impact the intention and use of the product in the
long term particularly in Islamic Fintech (Ali et al., 2021; Putra et al.,
2020).
From some of the studies above, the writer argues that LinkAja
Syariah, which is under the auspices of a red plate company, has quite a
good reputation, but there is a need for an increase in public trust in the
use of this payment method, one of which is through fast, responsive
CONCLUSION
With the development of times and advances in technology, cash
payments are slowly starting to be replaced by digital payments, one of
which is a digital wallet (e-wallet). This payment method is not only used for
online transactions, but also offline (in-store purchases), but unfortunately,
Islamic e-wallets have not been widely used by Indonesians when compared
to conventional competitors. Therefore, some of the efforts or strategies that
the authors propose in this study cover at least four points, namely
promotion, education, collaboration, and trust. Promotions can be carried out
by replacing cashback with points that can be converted into nominal money
to be donated with cooperative platforms, and through developing
applications with user-friendly features and usage. Education can be carried
out through non-digital and digital platforms such as social media which is
widely used by the community in the form of an invitation campaign to use
Islamic e-wallets. Next is a collaboration with Islamic public figures who have
good reputations and are known by the public in increasing the intention to
use Islamic e-wallets. And the last one is trust in Islamic e-wallet products
and issuing companies, one of which is through user security and comfort.
Some policy recommendations that can be carried out by the
government are first, to help promote Islamic e-wallet while supporting
economic growth and sharia finance in Indonesia. Second, injecting business
funds as capital for LinkAja Syariah as the only existing Islamic e-wallet that
is under the ownership of BUMN. Third, increase education and inclusion of
Islamic finance by facilitating the provision of seminars, workshops, and
training for academics, practitioners, and the general public. And finally, it
supports the performance of Sharia’ e-wallet by synchronizing payments for
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