Modernizing Core Database Infrastructure for Indonesia's Leading Private Credit Bureau

Indonesia is one of Southeast Asia's most dynamic digital economies, and a robust and effective credit reporting ecosystem plays an important role in supporting financial stability, responsible lending, and sustainable digital growth.

As a leading private credit bureau in Indonesia, Credit Bureau Indonesia (CBI) is tasked with the heavy responsibility of aggregating, governing, and delivering services for massive datasets integrated from telecommunications, e-commerce, and more. However, legacy technical and architectural constraints presented challenges to the bureau’s scalability and efficiency.

Leveraging its core native distributed database technology and full-stack localized service capabilities, OceanBase successfully partnered with CBl to achieve a leapfrog upgrade in business efficiency and service quality. This collaboration is not only a critical turning point for the Bureau’s business innovation but also marks a significant milestone for OceanBase. It validates the mature implementation of OceanBase in complex global scenarios characterized by strict regulation and significant data volumes, setting a benchmark for distributed database technology expanding into new international markets.

Three Technical Challenges Influencing System Modernization

As a key component of Indonesia’s digital financial infrastructure, CBI’s operational efficiency supports the timely functioning of financial institutions. Prior to recent system enhancements, several technical challenges influenced compliance processes, data handling, and service delivery.

1. High Regulatory Compliance Thresholds

The OJK (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan) has established a rigorous regulatory framework for credit reporting scenarios. It explicitly requires private credit bureaus to adopt:

• Private deployment models
• Dual/multi-active disaster recovery architectures
• Independent operation and maintenance (O&M) of IDC infrastructure.
• Mandatory standards for data access control, data life cycle governance, and compliance audit trails

2. Limited data processing capacity

CBI manages massive and diverse data sets. As regular data submissions are required, data volumes have expanded over time. Earlier database architecture was not designed for extensive horizontal scalability, which presented challenges in storage efficiency, real-time processing, and data retrieval at scale.

3. Service Output Efficiency

Prior to the upgrade, response times for the Bureau’s core credit report API did not consistently meet the low-latency requirements of Indonesian financial institutions and digital platforms. The existing open-source architecture also involved operational complexity, higher maintenance overheads, and scalability challenges, alongside limited local experience in managing distributed database operations.

OceanBase Solution: Native Distributed Architecture Solves Key Pain Points

Addressing the core demands of strict regulation, significant data processing, and high-concurrency service delivery, OceanBase provided a full-scenario solution centered on its native distributed database architecture:

• Elastic Expansion Supporting Data Growth: OceanBase supports seamless scaling without complex sharding (database/table splitting). This allows the Bureau to efficiently handle continuous data growth and high-concurrency processing while ensuring zero interruption to online services.
• Multi-Scenario Adaptation for Efficiency: Leveraging its integrated distributed architecture, OceanBase handles hybrid workloads-ranging from "batch write-heavy/query-light" to "external service query-heavy/write-light." This enhances system architecture to support more efficient credit reporting.
• Dual Optimization of Compliance and Cost: The solution is designed in accordance with OJK requirements for private deployment and strengthens business continuity through dual-active disaster recovery, supported by comprehensive audit trails to meet regulatory standards.
• Localized Service Strengthening O&M: Dedicated end-to-end services were provided to support system design, deployment, training, and operations, strengthening internal capabilities of CBI’s IT Team.

Breakthrough in Performance and Innovation

Following the core system upgrade with OceanBase, CBl achieved breakthroughs in operational efficiency, cost control, and business expansion.

Quantum Leap in Service Performance

The Bureau’s core credit services handle very high daily request volumes, including significant peak-period concurrency. Following the upgrade, response times have been stabilized at low-latency levels, representing a substantial improvement and aligning service standards with internationally recognized benchmarks.

Improved Operational Efficiency and Cost Management

Seamless scaling has ensured stable online operations, while high data compression reduces storage costs. Localized technical training has also improved the local team’s capabilities, boosting O&M efficiency.

Enabling Business Innovation

With a stable technical foundation, the Bureau has launched R&D for two new business lines: a consumer-facing credit reporting app and an SME credit reporting platform. Using this collaboration as a starting point, CBl is driving deeper synergy between OceanBase and other business sectors, accelerating the expansion of credit reporting across Indonesia and Southeast Asia.