SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Recent moves by tech firms to acquire small Indonesian banks will add more colour to Asean’s financing landscape, but are unlikely to pose a material challenge to the biggest incumbent lenders in the near term, said Fitch Ratings.

This comes as the tech firms are first likely to target underserved or niche segments of the market which traditional banks tend to neglect, it added in the report.

In the past two months, there had been separate reports on consumer Internet firm Sea planning to acquire Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi (BKE), and mulling the purchase of another Indonesian bank. Indonesia’s Gojek is also increasing its stake in Bank Jago. This highlights the ambition of tech firms to make further inroads in financial services, said Fitch.