Starting a forex brokerage in Indonesia

It covers futures, contracts for difference and other contracts the central bank designates, traded on a PUVA derivatives exchange, in the SPA, or through a broker routing orders to a listed foreign exchange.

Two licences matter for a retail forex business. A PUVA derivatives dealer (Pedagang Derivatif PUVA) trades for its own account and may not trade for or on behalf of clients; with Bank Indonesia's approval it can add running an SPA. A PUVA derivatives broker (Pialang Derivatif PUVA) trades for its clients and can add taking part in an SPA. Both must be Indonesian PTs that are members of the exchange and of the clearing house. Foreign citizens and companies may hold at most 49% of paid up capital, counted directly and indirectly, at least two thirds of the commissioners and of the directors must be Indonesian citizens, and capital may not come from loans or financing of any kind.

The rulebook also fixes the contracts. A forex contract is 100,000 units of the base currency, with a minimum trade of 1 lot for a regular contract, 0.1 for a mini and 0.01 for a micro. Bank Indonesia lists the currencies: major currencies may only be paired with each other, and other currencies only with the US dollar. Settlement must respect the obligation to use the rupiah in Indonesia. A broker must apply know your customer checks, obtain each client's written statement that they understand the risks, send a statement of transactions at least once a month and give clients 48 hours to dispute a confirmation. It may not give clients credit or financing to settle trades.

Firms that held Bappebti approvals and registered with Bank Indonesia before 30 May 2025 were carried over as licensed. They must be operating under their Bank Indonesia licence letters by 2 November 2026 and have until 1 October 2027 to meet the new paid up capital, while contracts outside the central bank's list may run until 30 September 2027. A new applicant goes through principle approval first and the business licence after it. Figures and practice change, so confirm them with Bank Indonesia and an Indonesian adviser.

Indonesia gives that role to a different firm. In the SPA, the dealer running it trades in its own name and its users are the participating brokers, while the broker receives client orders and executes them through the trading facility the market infrastructure provides. The futures law requires the SPA's operator and participant to be unaffiliated, and the PADG adds that a controlling shareholder of one PUVA firm may not control another. One group cannot simply hold both licences and run a single book.

So an Indonesian applicant should ask Bank Indonesia, the exchange and its adviser how a broker's own terminal and back office sit inside the SPA chain before choosing any platform. Founders who want the single-entity model usually look at a licence outside the country, and a licence held elsewhere does not open Indonesia to them: the section below shows how the regulators treat offers made to Indonesian residents.

Article 71 of the futures trading law, as amended in 2011, sets prison of 5 to 10 years and a fine of Rp10 billion to Rp20 billion for trading as a broker or in other licensed roles without a business licence. Bappebti works with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs to block offending sites, and its press release of 23 May 2025 reported 225 domains blocked from January to the second week of May 2025.

The same release describes how these offers reach people: trading content on websites, social media and messaging apps that then introduces a futures broker based abroad to recruit new investors. Bappebti also found investment schemes dressed up as futures trading that promise high profits or a fixed income. It points the public to its online legality check. For a licensed Indonesian broker that is an opening as much as a warning, because clients can confirm its licence before they deposit.

On Android it goes to the home screen in a single tap, on iOS after a short guided step, and no app store is involved. The instrument list covers forex, gold and silver, oil, stock indices, crypto and US stocks, and every symbol carries its own spread, contract size and digits, so forex can use the 100,000 units of base currency that Bank Indonesia's contracts share. Which groups an Indonesian licence lets you offer follows the split above: currencies under Bank Indonesia, indices and foreign shares under OJK, gold and oil under Bappebti.

The PADG sets no single leverage figure: the clearing house and the exchange set SPA margin by price volatility and market liquidity, review it at least once a year and report it to Bank Indonesia within 5 working days. Leverage on the platform is set per account type and per account, so accounts can follow whatever the rule book requires. The margin engine tracks equity and free margin live, sends a margin call warning and stops accounts out automatically at the levels the broker chooses, closing the biggest loser first. An account that still finishes below zero can be written back to zero by an admin in the CRM, and the entry stays on record.

Leads come in with their source and are assigned to agents, each client has a single record holding accounts, money, trades, documents and calls, and five roles run from admin to sales, with every agent limited to their own book. Bank Indonesia's consumer protection rules also require every offer, product summary and advert to state that the firm is licensed and supervised by Bank Indonesia, so that line belongs in your templates from the start.

Money moves the way you decide: deposits and withdrawals are instant or held for approval, checked against the bank and payment details you configure, and nothing is paid out until the client's identity documents have been reviewed. Sensitive staff actions are written to an audit trail. Under Law 8 of 2010, companies in commodity futures trading are among the financial service providers that report suspicious transactions, large cash transactions and transfers into or out of the country to PPATK, and the PADG brings forex brokers under Bank Indonesia's own anti money laundering rules from 1 October 2027. The platform's price is one flat monthly fee, the first month is free and there is no setup fee.