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tate-owned lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) launched four automated teller machines (ATMs) in Hong Kong on Sunday, targeting Indonesian migrant workers.

While trying to increase the amount of incoming transfers, the bank also aims to provide Indonesian migrant workers with better services for financial transactions like money withdrawals and transfers to their relatives in Indonesia.

BNI president director Gatot M. Suwondo Gatot said that BNI staff in Hong Kong had started to approach Indonesian communities, mostly migrant workers, to boost the number of customers in China's special autonomous region.

The number of customers has now reached 13,294 for BNI Syariah and 4,000 for BNI 'conventional' up to July.

'BNI is the only bank from Indonesia that has ATMs abroad and the only one that has permits to install ATMs outside branch offices,' Gatot said during the launching ceremony at BNI Hong Kong branch, which was marked by withdrawals by Indonesian Consul General to Hong Kong, Chalief Akbar, Agus Sugiarto of the Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) and BNI's international division head, Abdullah Firman Wibowo.

'We installed BNI ATMs to facilitate our customers in Hong Kong -- that include migrant workers, Indonesian students and the Indonesian business community,' he said.

He added that two of the ATMs were installed at the BNI Remittance Office in Causeway Bay, near Victory Park, where many Indonesian migrant workers spend their weekends, and the two others at the BNI Branch Hong Kong in the Admiralty area.

Bank Indonesia (BI) data shows that last year the amount of remittances sent by Hong Kong-based migrant workers totaled US$589 million.

In its 2013 annual report, BNI claimed to control 5 percent of the market of outgoing remittances from Hong Kong to Indonesia, meaning that the amount of funds sent using BNI's network reached $29.45 million.

Gatot said migrant workers received a monthly salary of HK$3,500 (US$451.60) on average and they usually sent up to HK$1,000 to Indonesia every month.

Therefore, he added that BNI also offered education on business and financial management so that the migrant workers could do business after they returned home to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Chalief Akbar welcomed the operation of the BNI ATMs, saying they were very helpful to the Indonesian people living in Hong Kong.

He said he had used BNI's ATM to make some payments for credit cards, electricity and tap water bills.

According to him, there are about 170,000 Indonesians in the region, 153,000 of whom are migrant workers.

'It means that the market is widely open for BNI to increase its number of customers in Hong Kong,' Chalief added.

He also expressed the hope that BNI would regularly carry out social activities, like education for migrants, so that they could manage their money well.

Abdullah of BNI said the Hong Kong branch was now BNI's largest foreign branch in terms of assets, which totaled $409 million.

It is also one of the most profitable branches, with $1.6 million in net profits recorded in the first half of this year.

Besides Hong Kong, BNI also has branch offices in London, UK, New York, USA and Singapore, as well as in Tokyo and Osaka, both in Japan.

The lender is aiming to see the total assets in its foreign branch offices surge to $1.8 billion by the end of the year, from $1.6 billion in 2013. For profitability, the bank's target is set at $12.9 million, up from the $10 billion reported last year.