BRI Big Boss Regarding Digital Bank Development: Interested, But...

JAKARTA PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk. (BRI) does not deny that the existence of a bank with a full digital business concept will play an important role in improving performance in the future.

BRI President Director Sunarso revealed that the company has a strong enough interest in developing the bank with a technology base of 4.0.

It must be interested (to develop digital banks). Why? Because if we don't develop digital banks, sooner or later we will be left behind. Because, generations will continue to change and banks with conventional concepts will not be looked at again," he said on Thursday, January 26.

Even so, Sunarso admitted that his party would not make a significant decision in the near future in order to maintain the market segment that had been successfully built.

"But if we are now fully digital, then look at the people below (which is the main market for BRI)," he said.

On this basis, Sunarso then chose to go to his company to transform gradually so that it could continue to be in line with the times.

"So we chose to carry out the hybrid concept which I think is the most ideal. This is evidenced by the presence of agents (BRILink) who meet the conventional face-to-face methods in the regions but some of the business processes have been digitized. So there is human touching there and not full digital," he said.

For information, the state-owned bank is known to have around 590,000 agents throughout Indonesia. Sunarso claims the total transaction volume of agents has reached Rp1,400 trillion.

"Imagine the transaction of IDR 1,400 trillion in the lower class through BRILink agents. This is proof that they still need conventional methods that are packaged with the hybrid bank concept," he said.

Citing the third quarter of 2022 financial report, BRI successfully disbursed loans amounting to Rp. 1,111.4 trillion with Rp935.8 trillion, including entering the MSME credit segment. The score is supported by a non-performing loan (NPL) ratio maintained at the level of 3.09 percent.

This result also boosted profit growth by 106 percent year on year (yoy) to IDR 39.3 trillion at the end of September 2022.