JAKARTA. State-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) plans to increase its e-money products this year on the back of growing utilization, its executive says.
BRI executive vice president for e-banking Dicky Rozano said the state lender aimed to see an increase in the issuance of its Brizzi e-money cards by around 25 percent to 33 percent this year. As of last year, the lender had issued nearly 4.2 million e-money cards, he said.
“We are optimistic because the growth will be driven by the card usage in many sectors, such as retail and culinary as well as toll road,” Dicky said on Thursday.
Dicky said BRI was prepared to facilitate road toll payments using Brizzi for the first time as part of an agreement between four state-owned banks last year on the integrated electronic payment system for toll roads.
In September 2015, four state-run lenders – BRI, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Mandiri and Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) – committed to adopting an electronic payment system to enable their customers to pay road tolls on roads operated by state-owned toll road operator Jasa Marga using e-money or prepaid cards issued by the banks.
The agreement changes the existing toll road electronic payment system operated exclusively by Mandiri with Jasa Marga through the “e-toll” card since 2009.
According to Dicky, BRI, alongside three other state banks, will be ready to operate the new payment system at several toll gates in February as they are currently conducting a series of trials.
Dicky said there were currently 1,040 toll gates on all toll roads operated by Jasa Marga, but BRI and other state banks would start the new system only at dozens of gates.
“For example, some sections of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road [JORR], Tangerang and Karawaci [Banten] as well as Jati Asih and Jatiwarna in Bekasi,” he said.
Dicky said the four state banks were expected to complete the new system in all toll gates by the end of this year, but the implementation would depend on the infrastructure preparation by the participants, including Jasa Marga as the operator.
“We have to conduct hundreds of trials, including on the strength and capability of the cards as well as the reader,” he said, adding that the four state banks would conduct campaigns to raise people awareness on the new system. Dicky said BRI also expected the new payment system to help increase Brizzi’s transactions to within the same growth range as the number of cards.
According to BRI data, the bank booked 5 million Brizzi transactions as of June 2015.
During the signing of the agreement between the four state banks, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said the ministry expected the state lenders to “work hard” to expand the new electronic payment system at all toll roads, including those operated by private companies by the end of 2016.
The agreement was initially prompted by a revised Bank Indonesia (BI) regulation on e-money that bans “exclusivity” in the public services sector, such as toll roads and parking, in a bid to promote non-cash transactions. (Grace D. Amianti)
