Tag Archives: Nurul Kolbi

Indonesia to Realize Digital Bank Initiative in 2020

We have witnessed various digital banking innovations in the last decade. Mobile and internet banking can be examples of banking digitalization that is most related to daily life. Thanks to this innovation, it is easier for customers to perform financial transactions.

Indonesian banks have also begun to explore service connectivity through the Open API strategy. The digital business growth in this country driven by e-commerce and fintech platforms and to be said as a driven factor for banks to develop these innovations. Currently, cross-platform transactions are very possible.

In recent years, fintech has played a significant role in providing access to efficient and practical financial services. Fintech managed to disrupt the traditional banking business model with a fast onboarding process.

Based on the 2019 Fintech Report, 79.9% of 747 respondents in Indonesia used digital wallet services, followed by investment (31.5%), paylater (30.9%), online multifinance (12%), insurtech (11, 8%), crowdfunding (8.2%), P2P lending (6.2%), and remittance (2.4%).

The role of fintech in the financial ecosystem has become a momentum for banks to innovate. Beyond its mobile banking services, a number of banks in Indonesia are very eager in developing digital financial products, both independent and through collaboration. Also, customers can now open savings accounts through mobile banking applications and digital platforms.

In the context of digitalization, the above efforts are certainly relevant to the demand of today’s users. However, these are not enough in order to reach broader financial inclusion. The population of people who don’t have access to financial services (unbanked) is quite large. The limited number of ATMs and branch offices are an obstacle for banks.

Google, Temasek, Bain & Company report in October 2019 noted that there were 92 million Indonesians in the unbanked segment (50.83%), followed by the banked segment at 42 million people (23.20%), and the underbanked segment 47 million (25.97%).

The Indonesian banking industry is aware of this phenomenon that today’s financial products are not only monopolized by banks. This situation also indicates that banks have not been able to close the gap between the ones with financial literacy and those who are yet to aware of this, with the traditional business model.

Digital bank in Indonesia

After banking digitization, digital bank concept is currently trending in Indonesia. The effort shows banking digital transformation is no longer depend on service digitization, but also to become a separate entity.

In definite, digital banks are different from banking digitalization. Borrowing the current popular term,  the concept of digital banks is generally referred to as neobank, which is popular since 2017. Also, quoting the words “Neo Bank and the Future of Retail Banking in Indonesia“, the term digital bank is often defined as a challenger bank.

Challenger banks in the world have even acquired millions of customers. Some of them are Nubank (Brazil), Monzo (United Kingdom), N26 (Germany), and Chime (United States).

Back to the origin, digital bank or neobank is defined as a bank that operates online-based services without a physical branch office. Digital Bank offers easy access with a user-friendly UI/UX. With an internet connection and smartphone, anyone can open an account and access other financial services.

Digital banks also have the opportunity to be able to leverage the customer’s journey through the development of financial support services and make their products a daily product for customers.

Of course the above concept is inversely proportional to traditional banks where financial services — even though there is already internet and mobile banking — still require face-to-face and physical branch offices. This is understandable considering that banks are a business of trust so physical contact is still needed.

In Indonesia, digital banks are mostly linked to Jenius services (2016) and Digibank (2017). Both are often referred to as the pioneers of the first digital bank. However, there are also those who call it a spin-off product since both are still operating under BTPN and DBS Bank as its main entity.

Jenius and Digibank are examples of application-based services that offer basic banking products, namely savings, online account opening. Both also offer other supporting services, such as financial regulators.

Tabel Jenius dan digibank / DailySocial
Jenius and digibank table / DailySocial

If the root is on the expansion of financial inclusion, Jenius and his staff are considered not a digital bank. This is because both are targeting segments of society that already achieve digital literacy (digital savvy). Meanwhile, the unbanked segment tends not to understand financial literacy.

The next step for digital bank

As the ecosystem and technology is getting mature, 2020 would likely to be the year of the digital banks realization in Indonesia. Some of the plans we have summarized, including Bank Digital BCA, Bank Jago, and Bank Yudha Bakti (BYB). Efforts to become a digital bank as a new entity have all been passed through the acquisition process.

Quoting Kontan, BCA has acquired Bank Royal worth Rp988 billion in 2019. Bank Royal will change its name to Bank Digital BCA targeting some realizations in the second-semester, 2020. The target market is retail and SME segments, different from the main portfolio of its parent company which mostly engaged to corporate. Bank Digital BCA already has a permit from OJK and is ready in infrastructure.

It is known, the company is currently preparing the P2P lending initiative for BCA Digital Bank. However, BCA’s President Director, Jahja Setiaatmadja revealed that he is not to launch the service in the near future. “We wouldn’t dare to enter P2P for the risks are enormous, we are still preparing,” he said as quoted by Katadata.

Tabel Bank Digital / DailySocial
Digital bank table / DailySocial

Furthermore, Bank Artos officially changed its name to Bank Jago after acquired by its seniors, Jerry Ng and Patrick Walujo. According to Bank Jago’s Managing Director, Kharim Siregar, his office is finalizing a business model and perfecting applications targeting to launch before the fourth quarter of 2020. Quoting Bisnis.com, Bank Jago will target the middle segment and mass-market. In addition, Bank Jago will also collaborate with digital platforms in various business verticals, such as e-commerce, ride-hailing, and P2P lending.

DailySocial has in touch with BCA and Bank Jago representations regarding the realization of this digital bank, but their team sre still reluctant to disclose any information. “Our directors are yet to confirm any information to the media because they are currently focusing on preparing applications and everything,” Bank Jago’s Senior Manager Nurul Kolbi said in a short message to DailySocial.

Unlike the two, Bank Yudha Bakti (BYB) started to be controlled by PT Akulaku Silvrr Indonesia which runs Akulaku’s fintech services in 2019. Akulaku’s entrance is expected to accelerate the digital transformation process of BYB, which is to become a digital bank without branch offices and develop mobile applications to increase market penetration.

DailySocial also reached BRI’s Indra Utoyo, Digital Director, Information Technology, and Operations regarding this matter. He commented, BRI did not perform a similar strategy with the above banks. However, BRI is considered to have made a major transformation to become a digital bank.

In order to become a digital bank, Indra ensured that BRI must maximize excellence in physical networks. “The winner is the one who can combine physical and digital excellence. Whatever the entity, both BRI, and its subsidiaries, must be a digital company. There is no need for a dichotomy between digital banks and non-digital banks,” he said.

Without this dichotomy, he said, BRI has provided value from the concept of digital banks with digital-based banking services. BRI became the first bank to launch PINANG and Ceria digital lending products. Then, the first bank to provide account opening services with the entirely digital-based KYC process.

Tabel Produk Digital BRI / DailySocial
BRI’s digital product table / DailySocial

Indra emphasized that digital cannot replace trust, service, and brand. However, without digital, we cannot get all three. It means those with the ‘digital’ label do not necessarily translate into trusted banks than large banks that have transformed digitally.

“To date, I have not seen a successful digital bank or neobank in the world. For me, the winner is the one that combines physical superiority or human touch and digital. The term is phygital,” he said.

Separately contacted, BTPN’s Head of Digital Banking, Irwan Sutjipto Tisnabudi admitted that the emergence of a new digital bank would help create a digital financial ecosystem and encourage education for better financial literacy. In fact, this trend will bring many collaboration opportunities.

Regarding the possibility of Jenius becoming a separate entity, Irwan assured that Jenius currently still supports the BTPN business to expand the current market segments. He also emphasized the main strategy through co-creation and collaboration with like-minded partners to develop products that are relevant to customers.

“In carrying out digital transformation, BTPN believes that digital is the core of the business and value proposition, not an additional channel. Our priority is to build an ecosystem that supports life finance with a broader scope so that the benefits can reach the digital literacy people,” he explained.

Jenius became the result of BTPN transformation which was developed through the process of creation and collaboration with thousands of digital-savvy for 18 months. As of March 2020, Jenius has secured more than 2.5 million users. The company has also just introduced the Bisniskit feature for new business owners and Moneytory to help with financial management.

Regulation and challenges

To date, digital banks still operate under the law of conventional banks. This is regulated in OJK Regulation Number 12 concerning Digital Banking Services Provided by Commercial Banks. There is no separate law to regulate the virtual account opening.

The regulation clearly states that digital banks are different from digital banking services (m-banking, SMS banking, e-banking, etc.). The difference is clear that all digital banking services can be accessed via smartphones.

Beyond that, digital banks cover all banking services from account administration, transaction authorization, financial management, and / or account opening/closing, digital transactions, and other financial product services based on OJK approval.

According to Bhima Yudistira, Institute for Development of Economics (Indef) observer, there is no need yet to draft new regulations to accommodate the law of digital banks. Moreover, existing regulations were only issued in 2018. However, Bhima highlighted that the government needs to pay attention to the high-security aspects and data utilization for third parties.

On the other hand, he also sees that the trend of digital banks is driving a new landscape of banking in the banking sector. According to him, banks that invest in digitalization will obtain a greater market share than banks that continue to operate conventionally.

“The demand for digital banking is greater along with the growth in the number of active internet users in 2020 reaching 175.4 million people. This means that banks are expected to provide faster services at affordable costs, and access anywhere, anytime,” he said.

If a digital bank is realized, the impact will be very large, especially for millennials. However, it is not without obstacles that banks are also deemed necessary to conduct education for other market segments, such as SMEs and rural areas. “The important thing here is developing digital banks must run along with the penetration of internet network access to remote and outermost areas,” Bhima said.


Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Beberapa bank menyiapkan strategi dengan entitas terpisah dan branding baru demi mengembangkan konsep bank digital

2020 Jadi Tahun Realisasi Bank Digital Indonesia

Kita telah menyaksikan berbagai inovasi digital perbankan dalam hampir satu dekade terakhir. Mobile dan internet banking dapat menjadi contoh digitalisasi perbankan yang paling lekat dalam keseharian. Berkat inovasi ini, nasabah semakin mudah dalam melakukan transaksi keuangan.

Perbankan Indonesia juga mulai merangkul keterhubungan layanan melalui pengembangan Open API. Pertumbuhan bisnis digital di Tanah Air yang dimotori platform e-commerce dan fintech dapat dikatakan sebagai driven factor bagi perbankan untuk mengembangkan inovasi tersebut. Kini, transaksi lintas platform menjadi sangat memungkinkan dilakukan.

Dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, fintech mengambil peran cukup besar dalam memberikan akses layanan keuangan yang efisien dan praktis. Fintech berhasil mendisrupsi model bisnis perbankan tradisional dengan proses onboarding yang cepat.

Berdasarkan Fintech Report 2019, tercatat sebanyak 79,9% dari 747 responden di Indonesia menggunakan layanan digital wallet, diikuti oleh investment (31,5%), paylater (30,9%), online multifinance (12%), insurtech (11,8%), crowdfunding (8,2%), P2P lending (6,2%), dan remittance (2,4%).

Peran fintech dalam ekosistem keuangan ini justru menjadi momentum bagi perbankan untuk berinovasi. Di luar layanan mobile banking yang dimiliki, sejumlah bank di Indonesia semakin agresif mengembangkan produk keuangan digital, baik sendiri maupun berkolaborasi. Bahkan nasabah kini bisa membuka rekening tabungan melalui aplikasi mobile banking dan platform digital.

Dalam konteks digitalisasi, upaya di atas tentu relevan dengan kebutuhan pengguna saat ini. Namun, upaya tersebut belum cukup jika ingin mencapai inklusi keuangan yang lebih luas. Populasi masyarakat yang tidak tersentuh layanan keuangan (unbanked) masih besar. Keterbatasan ATM dan kantor cabang menjadi salah satu kendala bagi perbankan.

Laporan Google, Temasek, Bain & Company pada Oktober 2019 mencatat ada sebanyak 92 juta masyarakat Indonesia masuk ke dalam segmen unbanked (50,83%), diikuti dengan segmen banked sebanyak 42 juta jiwa (23,20%), dan segmen underbanked 47 juta (25,97%).

Industri perbankan di Indonesia menyadari fenomena ini bahwa produk keuangan kini tak hanya dimonopoli oleh bank saja. Situasi ini juga menandakan perbankan belum mampu menutup gap antara masyarakat melek keuangan dan tidak, dengan model bisnis tradisional.

Bank digital di Indonesia

Setelah digitalisasi perbankan, kini tren bank digital di Indonesia secara perlahan mulai bertumbuh. Upaya ini memperlihatkan bagaimana transformasi bank tak lagi bertumpu pada digitalisasi layanan, tetapi juga menjadi sebuah institusi terpisah.

Secara definitif, bank digital berbeda dengan digitalisasi perbankan. Meminjam istilah populer, konsep bank digital umumnya disebut sebagai neobank yang populer sejak 2017. Sementara mengutip tulisan Neo Bank dan Masa Depan Retail Banking di Indonesia“, istilah bank digital sering didefinisikan sebagai challenger bank.

Challenger bank di dunia bahkan sudah mengantongi jutaan nasabah. Beberapa di antaranya adalah Nubank (Brasil), Monzo (Inggris), N26 (Jerman), dan Chime (Amerika Serikat).

Kembali pada definisi awal, bank digital atau neobank diartikan sebagai bank yang beroperasi berbasis online tanpa ada kantor cabang fisik. Bank digital menawarkan kemudahan akses dengan UI/UX yang ramah pemakaian. Dengan koneksi internet dan smartphone, siapa saja dapat membuka rekening dan mengakses layanan keuangan lainnya.

Bank digital juga memiliki peluang untuk dapat me-leverage journey pelanggan melalui pengembangan layanan keuangan penunjang dan menjadikan produknya sebagai produk keseharian nasabah.

Tentu konsep di atas berbanding terbalik dengan bank tradisional di mana layanan keuangan—meski sudah ada internet dan mobile banking—masih membutuhkan tatap muka dan kantor cabang fisik. Hal ini dapat dimaklumi mengingat bank adalah bisnis kepercayaan sehingga kontak fisik masih diperlukan.

Di Indonesia, bank digital kebanyakan dikaitkan pada layanan Jenius (2016) dan digibank (2017). Keduanya sering disebut sebagai pelopor bank digital pertama. Namun, ada juga yang menyebutnya sebagai produk spin off mengingat keduanya masih berada dalam naungan BTPN dan Bank DBS sebagai entitas utama.

Jenius dan digibank merupakan layanan berbasis aplikasi yang menawarkan produk dasar perbankan, yakni tabungan, pembukaan rekening online. Keduanya juga menawarkan layanan penunjang lain, seperti pengatur keuangan.

Tabel Jenius dan digibank / DailySocial
Tabel Jenius dan digibank / DailySocial

Jika akarnya adalah perluasan inklusi keuangan, Jenius dan digibank dapat dikatakan belum bisa dilabeli demikian. Hal ini karena keduanya mengincar segmen masyarakat yang sudah melek digital (digital savvy). Sementara, segmen unbanked cenderung belum memahami literasi keuangan.

Realisasi bank digital selanjutnya

Seiring semakin matangnya ekosistem dan teknologi, tahun 2020 tampaknya bakal menjadi tahun realisasi peluncuran bank digital di Indonesia. Beberapa rencana yang kami rangkum antara lain Bank Digital BCA, Bank Jago, dan Bank Yudha Bakti (BYB). Upaya untuk menjadi bank digital sebagai entitas baru ini semuanya dilalui lewat proses akuisisi.

Mengutip Kontan, BCA mencaplok Bank Royal senilai Rp988 miliar pada 2019. Bank Royal akan berganti nama menjadi Bank Digital BCA dengan target realisasi semester II 2020. Target pasarnya adalah segmen retail dan UMKM, berbeda dari portofolio utama induknya yang bermain di korporat. Bank Digital BCA sudah mengantongi izin dari OJK dan siap secara infrastruktur.

Diketahui, perusahaan juga disebut sedang menyiapkan P2P lending untuk Bank Digital BCA. Namun, Presiden Direktur BCA Jahja Setiaatmadja mengungkap urung untuk meluncurkan layanan tersebut dalam waktu dekat. “Belum berani masuk P2P karena risikonya besar sekali, kami sedang persiapan dulu,” ujarnya seperti dikutip dari Katadata.

Tabel Bank Digital / DailySocial
Tabel bank digital / DailySocial

Selanjutnya, Bank Artos resmi berganti nama menjadi Bank Jago setelah diakuisisi bankir senior Jerry Ng dan Patrick Walujo. Menurut Direktur Utama Bank Jago Kharim Siregar, pihaknya sedang merampungkan model bisnis dan menyempurnakan aplikasi yang ditarget meluncur sebelum kuartal IV 2020.
Mengutip Bisnis.com, Bank Jago bakal membidik segmen menengah dan mass market sebagai target utama. Selain itu, Bank Jago juga bakal berkolaborasi dengan platform digital di berbagai vertikal bisnis, seperti e-commerce, ride hailing, dan P2P lending.

DailySocial telah menghubungi reprenstasi BCA dan Bank Jago terkait realisasi bank digital ini, namun pihaknya masih enggan membuka informasi. “Direksi kami belum dapat menyampaikan informasi ke media karena saat ini sedang fokus menyiapkan aplikasi dan segala sesuatunya,” ungkap Senior Manager Bank Jago Nurul Kolbi dalam pesan singkat kepada DailySocial.

Berbeda dengan keduanya, Bank Yudha Bakti (BYB) mulai dikendalikan oleh PT Akulaku Silvrr Indonesia yang menaungi layanan fintech Akulaku pada 2019. Masuknya Akulaku diharapkan dapat mempercepat proses transformasi digital BYB, yakni menjadi bank digital tanpa kantor cabang dan mengembangkan aplikasi mobile untuk meningkatkan penetrasi pasar.

DailySocial menghubungi Direktur Digital, Teknologi Informasi, dan Operasi BRI Indra Utoyo terkait hal ini. Menurut Indra, BRI memang tidak melakukan strategi serupa dengan bank di atas. Akan tetapi, BRI dinilai sudah melakukan transformasi besar untuk mejadi bank digital.

Untuk menjadi bank digital, Indra menilai BRI harus memaksimalkan keunggulan pada jaringan fisik. “Pemenangnya adalah yang dapat memadukan keunggulan fisik dan digital. Apapun entitasnya, baik BRI dan anak usaha, harus digital company. Tidak perlu ada dikotomi bank digital dan bank non-digital,” ungkapnya.

Tanpa dikotomi tersebut, ujarnya, BRI sudah memberikan sebuah value dari konsep bank digital dengan layanan perbankan berbasis digital. BRI menjadi bank pertama yang meluncurkan produk digital lending PINANG dan Ceria. Kemudian, bank pertama yang menyediakan layanan pembukaan rekening dengan proses KYC sepenuhnya berbasis digital.

Tabel Produk Digital BRI / DailySocial
Tabel Produk Digital BRI / DailySocial

Indra menekankan bahwa digital tidak bisa menggantikan kepercayaan, layanan, dan brand. Akan tetapi, tanpa digital, kita tidak bisa mendapatkan ketiganya. Artinya, bank dengan label ‘digital’ tidak serta-merta menjadi lebih terpercaya dibanding perbankan besar yang sudah bertransformasi digital.

“Sampai saat ini saya belum lihat ada bank digital atau neobank yang sukses di dunia. Bagi saya, pemenangnya adalah yang memadukan keunggulan fisik atau human touch dan digital. Istilahnya phygital,” tuturnya.

Dihubungi terpisah, Head of Digital Banking BTPN Irwan Sutjipto Tisnabudi mengaku bahwa kemunculan bank digital baru akan membantu menciptakan ekosistem keuangan digital dan mendorong edukasi terhadap literasi finansial lebih baik. Bahkan, tren ini akan memunculkan peluang kolaborasi.

Terkait kemungkinan Jenius menjadi entitas terpisah, Irwan menegaskan bahwa Jenius saat ini tetap mendukung bisnis BTPN untuk memperluas segmen pasar yang telah dimiliki sebelumnya. Ia juga menekankan pada strategi utama melalui kokreasi dan kolaborasi dengan like-minded partner untuk mengembangkan produk yang relevan bagi customer.

“Dalam melakukan transformasi digital, BTPN meyakini digital menjadi inti bisnis dan value proposition, bukan saluran tambahan. Prioritas kami membangun ekosistem yang mendukung life finance dengan cakupan lebih luas sehingga manfaatnya dapat dirasakan bagi masyarakat melek digital,” jelasnya.

Jenius menjadi hasil transformasi BTPN yang dikembangkan lewat proses kokreasi dan kolaborasi dengan ribuan digital savvy selama 18 bulan. Per Maret 2020, Jenius telah mengantongi lebih dari 2,5 juta pengguna. Perusahaan juga baru saja memperkenalkan fitur Bisniskit untuk pembilik bisnis baru dan Moneytory untuk membantu pengelolaan keuangan.

Regulasi dan tantangan

Saat ini penyelenggaraan bank digital masih berada dalam payung hukum bank konvensional. Hal ini diatur dalam Peraturan OJK Nomor 12 tentang Penyelenggaraan Layanan Perbankan Digital oleh Bank Umum. Belum ada payung hukum tersendiri untuk mengatur pembukaan rekening virtual.

Dalam regulasinya jelas dikatakan bahwa bank digital memiliki perbedaan dengan layanan digital perbankan (m-banking, SMS banking, e-banking, etc). Perbedaannya jelas bahwa seluruh layanan digital perbankan dapat diakses melalui smartphone.

Sementara di luar daripada itu, bank digital mencakup keseluruhan layanan perbankan dari administrasi rekening, otorisasi transaksi, pengelolaan keuangan, dan/atau pembukaan/penutupan rekening, tranksaksi digital, dan pelayanan produk keuangan lain berdasarkan persetujuan OJK.

Menurut pengamat Institute for Development of Economics (Indef) Bhima Yudistira, belum ada kebutuhan untuk merancang regulasi baru untuk mengakomodasi payung hukum bank digital. Terlebih, regulasi yang sudah ada baru diterbitkan pada 2018. Akan tetapi, Bhima menggarisbawahi bahwa pemerintah perlu memperhatikan aspek keamanan dan pemanfaatan data untuk pihak ketiga agar dapat diatur lebih ketat.

Di sisi lain, ia juga melihat bahwa tren bank digital mendorong lanskap persiangan baru di sektor perbankan. Menurutnya, bank yang berinvestasi terhadap digitalisasi akan memperoleh pangsa pasar lebih besar dibandingkan bank yang tetap beroperasi secara konvensional.

“Kebutuhan terhadap digital banking semakin besar seiring dengan pertumbuhan jumlah pengguna internet aktif di 2020 yang mencapai 175,4 juta orang. Artinya perbankan diharapkan memberikan layanan yang lebih cepat dengan biaya terjangkau, dan akses di manapun dan kapanpun,” ujarnya.

Jika bank digital terealisasi, dampaknya akan sangat besar, khususnya bagi kalangan milenial. Namun, bukan tanpa halangan bahwa perbankan juga dinilai perlu untuk melakukan edukasi untuk segmen pasar lain, seperti UMKM dan pedesaan. “Di sini pentingnya pengembangan bank digital harus diiringi oleh penambahan akses jaringan internet ke daerah terpencil dan terluar,” tutur Bhima.