What Is an APERD (Mutual Fund Selling Agent)?
An APERD (Agen Penjual Efek Reksa Dana) is a mutual fund selling agent: a company licensed and supervised by OJK to sell mutual fund units to investors on behalf of the investment managers that run the funds. The APERD is where you buy and sell units, while two other parties do the rest: the investment manager decides how each fund's money is invested, and the custodian bank holds the fund's money and securities. Banks, securities companies and investment apps can all act as APERDs, as long as OJK has approved them. On Pluang, mutual funds are distributed by PT Sarana Santosa Sejati, an OJK-licensed APERD, so every fund you buy in the Pluang app is sold to you under that licence. Buying through an APERD does not change what you own: you hold participation units in the fund, and the fund's assets stay with its custodian bank, not with the APERD.
Who does what in a mutual fund
| Party | Role | On Pluang |
|---|---|---|
| Investment manager (Manajer Investasi) | Runs the fund and chooses its investments in line with the fund's objectives | Each fund has its own investment manager |
| Custodian bank (Bank Kustodian) | Holds the fund's money and securities on investors' behalf and handles its administration | Each fund has its own custodian bank, supervised by OJK |
| APERD | Sells units to investors and processes their buy and sell orders | PT Sarana Santosa Sejati |
| KSEI | Acts as the transaction guarantor | PT Kustodian Sentral Efek Indonesia |
What the APERD does for you
- Checks your identity and your investor risk profile before you invest. On Pluang this happens in Indonesian Asset Verification.
- Shows you the funds available and processes your purchases, sales and switches between funds.
- Passes your orders to the fund, so the money you invest becomes part of the fund held by its custodian bank.
Related questions:
Q: Is Pluang an APERD?
Pluang's mutual funds are distributed by PT Sarana Santosa Sejati, a company behind Pluang that is licensed and supervised by OJK as an APERD. The same company also works as a marketing partner for Indonesian Stocks under a separate licence. Pluang's other products sit with other licensed companies, such as PT Pluang Emas Sejahtera for Gold, so the APERD licence covers mutual funds only.
Q: Does the APERD hold my money?
No. The money you invest becomes part of the mutual fund, and the fund's money and securities are held by its custodian bank, not by the APERD and not by the investment manager. What you own is participation units in the fund, whose value moves with the fund's net asset value per unit (NAB). When you sell, the proceeds come back to you from the fund, and the APERD processes the order.
Q: Do I pay a fee to the APERD?
Pluang does not charge a fee when you sell a mutual fund. As of September 2026, Pluang's admin fee applies to purchases paid by GoPay (Rp4,500) or Virtual Account (Rp5,500), plus 11% VAT on that fee. Each fund's own costs are already included in its NAB and listed in its prospectus.
Q: Are mutual funds bought through an APERD guaranteed by LPS?
No. LPS guarantees bank deposits, not mutual funds, so no institution guarantees the value of your units, whichever APERD you buy through. A fund's value can go down as well as up, depending on what it invests in. What OJK supervision does is license each party, the investment manager, the custodian bank and the APERD, and require the fund's assets to be held by the custodian bank, separate from the investment manager's own.