"The biggest contribution came from transactions through the BSI mobile service, which rose 83.56 percent on an annual basis," BSI President Director Hery Gunardi said during a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Friday.
In detail, he said, the transaction volume at BSI mobile reached Rp41.99 trillion in the first half of 2021, or grew 109.82 percent compared to the first half of 2020.
The growth was driven by the number of mobile banking users, which reached 2.5 million users by the end of June 2021.
Hery said that there are at least two BSI strategies to obtain improved digitization services.
The first strategy is to adopt the bionic banking strategy, which is the principle of maintaining physical services by increasing digital capabilities.
For this reason, he continued, an evaluation will be carried out at several BSI branch offices, in terms of productivity.
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The second strategy, according to Hery, is to move simple transactions to mobile banking, ATMs, and other electronic services, so that BSI branch offices can serve more complex transactions.
Thus, all BSI branch offices can become more efficient, productive, and focused on the business aspect in the future.
Vice President Ma'ruf Amin sought greater competitiveness from Indonesian Sharia Bank (Bank Syariah Indonesia/BSI) to draw public interest to expand its customer base at the joint bank of the State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara).
Vice President Amin earlier conveyed the message to the BSI board of directors and commissioners during a meeting at the vice president's residence in Jakarta on Wednesday, June 2.
"This (initiative) has provided more competitive opportunities, but it is not sufficient. Other breakthroughs must be sought, so that sharia is more competitive," Vice President Amin noted in a statement received by Antara, Thursday.
The vice president noted that some people view sharia banking services to be more expensive than conventional banking, so to change this mindset the government has urged the General Provisions for Taxation (KUP) to reduce the burden of sharia financial income to five percent.
Related news: Bank Syariah Indonesia should become more competitive: VP
Translator: Agatha O, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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