Indosat inks mobile banking deal with Bank Rakyat Indonesia

Indosat has linked with Bank Rakyat Indonesia to provide mobile and Internet banking services to the latter's clients.

Under the deal, Indosat subscribers with accounts in Bank BRI can download BlackBerry, Android and Java applications that will grant them access to the mobile banking services of the bank.

Indosat has also issued special modems that can instantly link modem users with the bank’s Internet banking services.

Indonesia, with a population of over 240 million, has more than 200 million subscribers to mobile phone services.

However, only 70 million people own bank accounts, giving ample room to localize financial services via telecommunication and electronic tools.

BRI general manager for funding and services Widodo Januarso said that around 15 million of the approximate 30 million BRI account holders were “eligible” for all forms of mobile and Internet banking services.

“These 15 million account holders are those with BRI savings cards,” he said. Out of the 15 million, only an estimated 3.5 million of these account holders conduct banking activities through mobile phones and the Internet, he added.

Sumantri Joko Yuwono, Indosat’s product development and management head, said that by next year, Indosat was seeking half of the “eligible” 15 million account holders to migrate from traditional forms of transactions, such as through automated teller machines, to those that conducted transactions electronically via Indosat’s data networks.

He added that subscribers who conducted mobile banking tended to be more loyal. 

Meanwhile, Widodo added that BRI had sought to increase the volume of transactions conducted through mobile and Internet banking through the deal.

According to him, the transaction value the bank reaped through its 3.5 million account holders who actively conduct mobile banking touched Rp 21 trillion or US$2.2 billion.

“We aim to increase the number of account holders who conduct mobile banking to 5 million people and increase the transaction volume to Rp 23 trillion,” he said.

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