Indonesian banks to educate students to save

Lenders open savings account program for students to boost Indonesia’s saving ratio, the lowest among ASEAN countries.

The Bali branch of Bank Indonesia rallied called on private and micro banks to back its program to get people, especially students, to save.

“Each private and micro bank is required to establish a partnership with local schools,” BI’s Jeffry Kairupan said Sunday.

“The banks should send teams over the next three months to those schools to educate students on the importance of saving. In the next stage of the program, the banks should devise and implement special services targeted at students.”

He added that Indonesia had the lowest saving ratio among ASEAN countries. A recent survey showed up to 60 percent of Indonesian had never used banking services.

Bank Mandiri regional manager Benny Yustanto said the student’s saving program had rolled out Tabunganku, a saving scheme with no monthly administrative charges and a minimum initial deposit of between Rp 10,000 ($1.12) and Rp 20,000 ($2.25).

View the full story in Jakarta Post.