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Commonwealth takes to mobile app to reach more people

Be smart: Insurance company Commonwealth Life president director Simon Bennet (left) and alternative distribution channel director Pieter Wattimena (right) chat with Financial Services Authority (OJK) commissioner overseeing education and consumer protection Kusumaningtuti Sandriharmy Soetiono (second left) and Financial Planning Standards Board Indonesia head of professional certification body (second right) at the launch of the financial calculator app Commonwealth Life in the Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta, on Thursday

Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, November 27, 2015

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Commonwealth takes to mobile app to reach more people Be smart: Insurance company Commonwealth Life president director Simon Bennet (left) and alternative distribution channel director Pieter Wattimena (right) chat with Financial Services Authority (OJK) commissioner overseeing education and consumer protection Kusumaningtuti Sandriharmy Soetiono (second left) and Financial Planning Standards Board Indonesia head of professional certification body (second right) at the launch of the financial calculator app Commonwealth Life in the Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta, on Thursday.(JP/Jerry Adiguna) (left) and alternative distribution channel director Pieter Wattimena (right) chat with Financial Services Authority (OJK) commissioner overseeing education and consumer protection Kusumaningtuti Sandriharmy Soetiono (second left) and Financial Planning Standards Board Indonesia head of professional certification body (second right) at the launch of the financial calculator app Commonwealth Life in the Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta, on Thursday.(JP/Jerry Adiguna)

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span class="inline inline-center">Be smart: Insurance company Commonwealth Life president director Simon Bennet (left) and alternative distribution channel director Pieter Wattimena (right) chat with Financial Services Authority (OJK) commissioner overseeing education and consumer protection Kusumaningtuti Sandriharmy Soetiono (second left) and Financial Planning Standards Board Indonesia head of professional certification body (second right) at the launch of the financial calculator app Commonwealth Life in the Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta, on Thursday.(JP/Jerry Adiguna)

Life insurance company Commonwealth Life is taking to mobile applications as part of its efforts to reach out to more people by offering smartphone users interactive information about financial planning and products.

The mobile app '€” a financial calculator '€” features three financial planning aspects: education, future plans and pensions. It also allows users to post results on their social media accounts.

Commonwealth Life alternative distribution channel director Pieter Wattimena said the company saw the potential of mobile apps to get into people'€™s lives particularly with the growing number of Internet and smartphone users in Indonesia.

'€œThe app is more to educate community members so that they will get used to planning their finances,'€ he said during the program launch in South Jakarta.

A survey conducted by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in 2013 revealed that only 18 percent of the country'€™s population had an adequate understanding of insurance while just 11.8 percent were holders of insurance products.

It also revealed that the national financial literacy rate remained at 21.8 percent, which the OJK claimed was lower than rates in neighboring countries.

To boost financial literacy among Indonesians, the OJK launched the National Strategy on Indonesian Financial Literacy (SNLKI) last year, targeting, among others, students, professionals, housewives and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

OJK commissioner for consumer education and protection Kusumaningtuti S. Soetiono hailed Commonwealth Life'€™s efforts, saying it supported her office'€™s financial education and inclusion program.

'€œGlobal research has shown that a financially inclusive population will support a nation'€™s growing and prevalent wealth,'€ she said.

Kusumaningtuti added that the OJK saw young people, who mostly used mobile apps, as one of Indonesia'€™s main assets, prompting it last year to include financial materials in junior and high school curriculums.

It is also set to launch books related to financial education for elementary school students next week.

Pieter said that insurance companies'€™ participation was essential in raising people'€™s awareness of financial matters.

'€œWe realize that it will be difficult for the OJK to educate people across the nation by itself,'€ he said.

Commonwealth Life president director Simon Bennett said the company planned to spend more funds next year on digital technology, for the benefit of the firm'€™s customers and distributors.

'€œWe would be looking to invest at least 30 percent of our discretionary investment pool in the implementation of new technologies,'€ he stated on Thursday.

The sister company of private lender Commonwealth Bank aims to pocket total premium value of Rp 2 trillion (US$146.60 billion) this year, 12.26 percent higher than last year'€™s Rp 1.78 trillion, and Rp 2.3 trillion next year.

'€œWe'€™re not getting the growth that we expected this year but we'€™re not backward either,'€ Bennet said, adding that strong renewal premium values had helped the firm to weather the country'€™s current gloomy economic conditions.

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