BSI Records The Exchange Of Riyal Capai 24.4 Million SAR In The April-May Period

Photo: Doc. Antara

PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk (BSI) noted that currency exchange transactions from rupiah to Saudi Arabia or Saudi Arabia Riyal (SAR) reached 24.4 million SAR for the April-May 2025 period. This is in line with the start of this year's Hajj season which has started departing since May 2, 2025.

BSI Sales & Distribution Director Anton Sukarna explained, during this year's Hajj season period, the number of Indonesian pilgrims departing through BSI reached 83 percent of Hajj pilgrims in 2024 or around 178,770 thousand from around 213 thousand regular pilgrims from Indonesia who will depart from 18 embarkations throughout Indonesia.

"This encourages the company to provide optimal services from leaving until the return of Hajj to Indonesia. One of them is through ease of real exchange in a number of embarkations," he said, Thursday, May 15.

He detailed a number of embarkations serving Riyal exchanges between a Gorontalo, Maluku, Bangka Belitung, Bengkulu, Jambi, Aceh, Lombok, Padang, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Palembang, Lampung, Medan, Kertajati, Batam, Makassar, Donohudan Solo and Surabaya.

The total real exchange at BSI until May 2025 penetrated 85.2 million SAR year to date.

"With the foreign exchange service, we hope that it will make it easier for customers, both pilgrims, pilgrims who will go to Umrah, as well as save Hajj savings at BSI to provide one stop solution. Saving, umrah or Hajj through travel, cooperation with BSI and mutual exchange can be done at BSI," said Anton.

On the other hand, Anton continued, new policy factors from the government related to the distribution of pocket money or living costs also have an effect on the increase in riyal exchange transactions. For information, the new policy provides convenience in the distribution of living costs for pilgrims amounting to SAR 750 per congregation that can be used during worship in the Holy Land.

Not only exchanging riyal money, BSI is ready to oversee Indonesian Hajj pilgrims services ranging from Manasik services at city and district level embarcations, major debit cards with free facilities of three times cash withdrawals per month in Saudi Arabia, to cashback shopping at merchants in Saudi Arabia with a minimum of IDR 10 million.

BSI also optimizes Hajj pilgrims services in 18 embarkations throughout Indonesia by providing SAR exchange services, major debit card activation services, and Byond activation services. In addition, BSI cooperates with partner travel and well-known Umrah Hajj association throughout Indonesia.

In this year's Hajj season, BSI dispatched 164,905 customers who are prospective pilgrims. This figure covers about 81 percent of the total quota of Indonesian regular pilgrims this year which reached 203,320 regular pilgrim quotas. In March 2025, the number of BSI Hajj savings customers amounted to 5.8 million.