BSI Director: Banking Industry Needs To Be More Innovative In Developing Banking Products

President Director of PT Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) Tbk Hery Gunardi. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) Tbk Hery Gunardi said the banking industry needs to be more innovative in developing banking products to increase the growth of low-cost funds by 2023.

"In terms of digitalization, I think all banks will encourage their capacity to digitalize, how to get as many consumers as possible, more innovative to get cheap funds because the key is banks if the funds are cheap, it means they can compete like that in lending and the margin will be thicker," said Hery in the webinar "Tren Perbankan in 2023", quoted from Antara, Tuesday, January 17.

Various innovations, he continued, need to be carried out by banks amidst the challenges of the high interest rate regime and strict liquidity, so that they can attract more funds from the community.

"Of course, banks are expected to be more innovative in terms of how to attract funds from the public, low-cost funds, and also funds that can be obtained from many variations in product development as well as digital channels, which currently banks must do," he said.

Innovation is done not only by developing competitive and attractive products for customers or consumers, but banks can also innovate by developing digital channels that can provide better benefits or convenience for customers than the previous system.

In addition, Hery said there are three big things that are challenges for Islamic banking at this time and in the midst of the intense competition in the banking industry in Indonesia, namely consolidation, high interest rate regime, and strict liquidity, as well as digitization.

According to him, consolidation will encourage banks to have a larger scale of financing and capital, as well as increase the ability to expand and build better banking capabilities.

"In our opinion, consolidation is indeed one of the challenges that must be done and must be faced so that Islamic banking can become stronger," he said.

Banking of course not only consolidates, but also strengthens reserves or capital to have sufficient durability, both in the face of 2023 conditions which may not be better than 2022.

Consolidation is expected to continue in 2023, where banks will be more realistic that by merging it will bring the bank's capabilities to a greater extent than before, so that banks will develop better, be ready to serve customers better, and experience better growth.