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ewly launched life insurer PT Asuransi Jiwa BCA '€” part of the private Bank Central Asia (BCA) Group '€” will be targeting its parent company'€™s extensive network of customers in the early years of its activities as it begins penetrating the domestic life insurance business.

The company, known as BCA Life, sets its premium income target at Rp 250 billion (US$20.67 million) for the first year of its operations. BCA Life president director Christine Setyabudhi said that the business potentials were huge, citing BCA'€™s large customer base.

'€œOur initial strategy, at least for the first three years, is to cater to these customers and partner with companies under the BCA Group,'€ she said on Wednesday during the insurer'€™s launch.

At present, BCA Group consists of several financial companies, namely lender BCA, car financing firm BCA Finance and motorcycle financing company Central Santosa (CS) Finance.

BCA currently has 13 million customers, while BCA Finance and CS Finance have 50,000 and 400,000 customers, respectively, latest data show.

Christine said that BCA Life signed a partnership in October with BCA Finance to provide life insurance to the latter'€™s customers and that it already booked around 900 policies through the partnership.

BCA Life is also looking to sign similar cooperation agreements with the bank'€™s mortgage division and to offer several saving plans, including in education and pensions, to other BCA Group customers.

BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja said that the cooperation with the mortgage division would enable the life insurer to gain access to its 80,000 existing mortgage customers.

'€œ[BCA Life] can also benefit from our 1,000 branch offices and 130,000 premium banking clients. So, BCA Life really has a wide customer base that it can delve into,'€ Jahja said during the launch.

The use of the branches will help realize BCA Life'€™s plan to make bancassurance its primary source of premiums within the next five years, according to Christine.

'€œThe future will see us develop our channels to include telemarketing and face-to-face marketing as well,'€ she said.

By the end of 2019, the life insurer hopes to accumulate total assets of Rp 3 trillion and serve 700,000 customers.

According to company data, BCA Life is now 99.9 percent owned by securities firm BCA Sekuritas, which is 75 percent controlled by BCA, and it has Rp 400 billion in authorized capital.

The establishment of the life insurer is expected to expand the group'€™s portfolio in the financial sector.

Besides the aforementioned companies, the group also runs a business in sharia banking through Bank BCA Syariah and in general insurance through Asuransi Umum BCA.

BCA Finance remains the subsidiary with the highest contributions for BCA. Jahja had previously said that the group is interested in having its own asset management company as well, but such a plan will only be realized in the long term.

Meanwhile, as a group, BCA reaped Rp 12.19 trillion in net profits during the first nine months of 2014, as shown by its latest financial reports. BCA'€™s shares, listed as '€œBBCA'€ on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), rose 0.6 percent to Rp 13,100 apiece from a day before.