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tate-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) is preparing to expand its electronic money (e-money) service to increase low-cost funds as well as to offer wider banking access.

Its e-money card, previously called BNI Prepaid, was redeveloped into a new brand and platform called '€œBNI TapCash'€ last year to help the lender develop its branchless banking program, a BNI executive said.

'€œWe will start the branchless banking program with our existing e-money product, BNI TapCash. The card can be used for payment and to withdraw money from BNI'€™s banking agents and ATMs,'€ Dodit W. Probojakti, general manager of BNI'€™s product management division in consumer and retail, said Thursday.

Dodit said the branchless banking program was scheduled to be launched along with other banks, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia (BI) in April to help boost the regulators'€™ nationwide campaign for a cashless society '€” a condition where people are accustomed to non-cash transactions.

The nationwide branchless banking program, code-named '€œLaku Pandai'€, will be launched soon by the OJK as part of efforts to increase access to financial services nationwide, where only 20 percent of its more than 240 million people have access to banks.

Under the branchless banking regulation, domestic banks participating in the program will partner with local agents to provide basic banking services to customers, especially low-income people in remote areas.

The OJK'€™s Laku Pandai will go hand-in-hand with a similar program promoted by BI, dubbed '€œDigital Financial Services'€ (LKD).

To boost its branchless banking program through e-money, Dodit said BNI expected its 1,800 branches nationwide to approach their local communities with various groups of people, such as families, entrepreneurs, street vendors and students.

There are currently 400,000 BNI TapCash cards in circulation, with average transactions ranging between Rp 1.2 billion (US$90,721) and Rp 2 billion per month, according to Dodit.

'€œE-money is a door-opener for new customers who will later become interested in opening bank accounts,'€ Dodit said.

At the same time, Dodit said BNI had also prepared a pilot project for its e-money card to be used with fellow state-owned Bank Mandiri'€™s e-toll platform for the Nusa Dua-Ngurah Rai-Benoa toll road in Bali. Bank Mandiri has announced that it will allow other banks to utilize its e-toll platform, which has been operated exclusively by the lender with state-owned toll operator PT Jasa Marga since 2009.

At present, toll-road users are only able to pay toll fees using Mandiri'€™s prepaid card, called '€œe-money'€. Bank Mandiri decided to open the platform after BI revised its regulation on e-money last year.

Dodit said that all the plans to introduce branchless banking were part of the bank'€™s strategy to increase its low-cost funds, which comprises current account and savings account (CASA) this year.

As of last year, BNI posted Rp 313.9 trillion in third-party funding (DPK), a 7.5 percent increase from Rp 291.9 trillion in 2013, with 65 percent of the amount contributed by CASA.

'€œWe are aiming to increase our total DPK by around 13 to 16 percent this year, which includes around 8 to 10 percent CASA growth. We will maintain our CASA portion at a range of 65 to 70 percent,'€ Dodit said.

Dodit further said that the bank was also promoting its savings product for children, called '€œBNI Taplus Anak'€, as another way to increase low-cost funds. The savings, which had reached Rp 1.6 trillion from 875,000 accounts as of February 2015, is expected to grow by 35 percent to at least Rp 2 trillion by the end of this year.