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s part of its efforts to increase its corporate clients, state lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) will be issuing next year corporate cards specifically aimed at small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

BNI'€™s consumer and retail director, Darmadi Sutanto, said Tuesday that the corporate cards would be issued in cooperation with US-based financial company American Express (Amex).

The lender and Amex had recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the partnership, he added.

The cards, which will be available in both debit and credit forms, will be offered to SMEs across the country. At present, BNI'€™s corporate cards are only used by large corporations, according to Darmadi.

'€œWe hope to trigger a change among these SMEs, to shift from cash-based transactions to card-based ones. This is also part of the wider non-cash movement that is being promoted by the government,'€ he added.

Statistics from the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry show that the combined number of SMEs exceeds 678,000, which account for more than Rp 1.92 quadrillion (US$157.92 billion) in total turnover.

BNI has not established specific targets for the SME corporate card, but Darmadi said it would significantly help to raise the bank'€™s fee-based income, generated from the companies'€™ transactions.

'€œCorporate cards are traditionally used to finance travel expenses, but we want to expand the use to include other expenses as well, such as procurement,'€ he added.

According to BNI'€™s first-half data, card transactions made up 16 percent '€” or Rp 501.92 billion '€” of its fee-based income by the end of June.

The new corporate cards are also expected to help BNI gain additional low-cost funds, as the SMEs will be required to establish accounts at the bank. As of June, BNI'€™s low-cost funds, or CASA, accounted for Rp 191.66 trillion or 61 percent of its total deposits.

Separately, BNI president director Gatot Suwondo said the BNI '€” Indonesia'€™s fourth-largest bank by assets '€” was seeking a strategic partner to develop its multi-finance business, which is now run by its wholly owned subsidiary, BNI Multifinance.

According to Gatot, the lender was ready to transfer its majority stake in BNI Multifinance to its future partner. '€œIt will be no problem for us if our ownership in the subsidiary is reduced to 10 percent,'€ he said.

The latest data from the BNI shows that BNI Multifinance, which provides financing for a variety of consumer goods such as motor vehicles and home appliances, had only Rp 143.1 billion in total assets at the end of June.

Supported by a new owner, the company is expected to expand its coverage to the marine sector, including shipping and shipyards.

The Indonesian Shipbuilding Association (Iperindo) previously said that the shipbuilding industry needed investment of around Rp 30 trillion for 2015.

'€œWe are still looking for the right business model for the multi-finance company. The new administration has said it will focus on developing our marine sector but that will require major capital,'€ he added. Meanwhile, the publicly listed BNI is slated to announce its January-September financial results on Thursday.

Its shares, which are traded as '€œBBNI'€, closed Tuesday at Rp 5,625 apiece on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), down 1.3 percent from the day before.