The coronavirus outbreak has spurred the growth of Jenius, the internet-only bank owned by PT Bank BTPN Tbk (BTPN).

BTPN’s vice president director Darmadi Sutanto said yesterday during a JakPost webinar in Jakarta that Jenius’ digital banking had been constantly growing for the past five years, with more than 2.5 million users thanks in part to the bank’s penetration to higher market or senior customers, which the bank calls “selenials”.

“Our branches are available across Indonesia. So, we offer flexibility for our clients not only through a smart phone but also through branches,” he said.

The webinar also featured other speakers, including Financial Services Authority (OJK) banking research and regulation executive director Anung Herlianto, Accenture managing director Tri Hindriasari and Kata.ai chief marketing officer Reynir Fauzan and Bank Syariah Indonesia head of digital banking product Riko Wardhana.

Jenius’ transactions, including interest and taxes, were recorded at Rp 17 trillion per month in the first quarter alone. The bank’s transactions, including interest and taxes, in 2020 were recorded at Rp 14 trillion per month, double growth compared with 2019.

The bank has taken advantage of the health crisis to offer innovative products, including Moneystory, which helps customers to identify their spending and income.

“So, by identifying what we spend every single day, we can see the story of our money at the end of the month. That way, it helps manage your money easily and with that, it is also very easy to understand your income during the month,” he explained.

In response to customer feedback eager to have a few different accounts for different purposes, Jenius come up with Multi Flexi Saver where clients can open up more saving accounts with high interest, allowing them to allocate their money for different purposes.

The pandemic has also led to many starting to run new ventures or growing their businesses, he said. “That’s how we came up with the idea to offer Jenius for business. Basically, Jenius for business helps clients to separate business accounts from accounts for personal use,” he said.

Darmadi added that collaboration was of paramount importance to grow the bank.  According to him, the bank cooperates with many domestic and international online and offline e-commerce platforms and merchants, one of the pillars of participating in building as many digital ecosystems as possible.

From the banking industry’s side, any new licensing or policies that accelerate digital banking growth would be most welcome. “Moving forward, we expect that one-door licensing or policies will be in place, which will allow us to produce new products, services, apps and features in a faster and more efficient manner,” he said.

BTPN also offers a feature that can be accessed by rural people using a smartphone with a single app. with less memory because the bank is aware that people in rural areas are limited in terms of the smartphones they own but also the memory that their smartphones have, which may prevent them from using the Jenius app.  

“We have started to offer a platform for micro-businesses. That’s how we make our digital banking more inclusive,” he said.

The rise of digital banking has also led to an increase in banking fraud rates during the pandemic. “This is an issue for the industry, not only Jenius. We need to fight against fraud,” he said.

“We need to educate the customers. Somehow, someway, this is nothing to do with the system, nor with the capability of Jenius’ security but it is more to do with the carelessness of customers. So customers should be able to protect their personal data by, for instance, not sharing their data with an individual claiming to be an employee from a bank or financial institution,” he said.

“Looking at digital banking we not only talk about innovations or sometimes ecosystems. Scalability, or the ability to grow, and sustainability are very important,” he said.

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