State-owned lenders are seeking to outdo one another in providing e-commerce transactions, because such transactions have shown significant growth in recent years.

Bank Mandiri senior vice president of transaction banking and retail sales Thomas Wahyudi said the value of e-commerce transactions facilitated by the bank had reached Rp 12 trillion (US$620 million) up to July.

“The transactions were made at merchant marketplaces, retail stores and online travel agencies cooperating with Bank Mandiri," Thomas said in Jakarta recently. He did not divulge details on the growth in transactions but asserted it had been always positive in the last several years.

According to kontan.co.id, the bank is partnering with more than 2,000 e-commerce merchants as a payment service provider.

Thomas explained that the lender now had several e-commerce payment systems, including credit cards, debit online, e-cash and transfer through virtual accounts of Bank Mandiri.

He said Bank Mandiri did not have any specific target, but he expected continued growth in e-commerce transactions.

Meanwhile, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) has similar efforts in place to boost e-commerce transactions. BTN business card division head Budi Santoso said the bank had pushed the growth of e-commerce transactions since 2014.

With regard to the implementation of such systems, the bank stressed it was paying special attention to security aspects. “That means we use one-time passwords (OTP) send to registered handphones to minimize misuse,” he added.

According to data from Visa, BTN’s e-commerce transactions were up 35 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2018. (bbn)