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T Bank Permata (BNLI) has reported more than 30 percent increases in its third-party funds each year for the last two years following the launch of the bank’s family oriented lucky draw program.

“The lucky draw program has become one of our successful keys to getting more customers and [we] derived a significant amount of third-party funds. Looking at those achievements, we are eager to carry it out again,” Permata e-Channels’ head, Bianto Surodjo, said during the launch of the bank’s third lucky draw program on Thursday.

The four-month program, called PermataFamillionaire, offers total prizes of Rp 8 billion (US$872,000) and up to 2 percent extra interest savings to lure families to open accounts with Permata.

Permata is also offering savings programs, which are not only aimed at fascinating breadwinners but also their children with the PermataBintang savings program, where they can put cute cartoon figures on their debit cards, or PermataMe! for teenagers who would love to see their own faces on the card.

Permata did not hesitate to chip in billions of rupiah to create particular savings programs, considering that in the previous years the four-month program had generated Rp 1 trillion per month into its manageable funds, or about 40 percent higher than monthly average.

The family program had supported the company’s third party funds by 26.03 percent to Rp 57.6 trillion in 2010 from Rp 45.7 trillion in the previous year. The growth elevated to 37 percent in 2011 to Rp 79 trillion of total funds.

Permata kept pace by collecting Rp 79.7 trillion in the first quarter this year, up 28 percent compared to same period last year.

“The first quarter increase was mainly derived from 40 percent growth of savings, which reached Rp 16.7 trillion,” said Permata’s retail banking director Lauren Sulistiawati.

The funds increase could be considered robust considering the slight 6.9 percent growth in 2009, back when Permata had not yet started the Famillionaire program.

“Currently, our customers linked with family-integrated accounts stood at 15 percent, we expected to push it to 30 percent,” she added.

As of May 3, Permata’s current accounts and saving accounts (CASA) represent 41 percent of total savings, about half of which are derived from 30,000 Permata’s Priority customers, who each have Rp 500 million of minimum balance.

   Permata Bank is owned by Indonesian diversified group PT Astra International (ASII) and Standard Chartered Bank, each held 44.51 percent of stake. The remainder 10.97 had been disbursed to public.

 The lender served about 2 million customers in 57 cities in Indonesia, equipped with 281 branches (including 10 Syariah’s branches) and 631 automated teller machine (ATM) and additional of 40.000 ATM networks. (yps)