Mandiri prepares new projects for next year

State-owned Bank Mandiri, currently the largest lender by assets in Indonesia, is polishing several business plans as it gears up for 2015, according to its executives.

Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the bank was looking to expand its card and electronic-based business segment, especially in secondary and tertiary cities.

“The business has been strong in major cities, but not in secondary and tertiary cities because they lack the necessary equipment, such as EDC [electronic data capture] units,” he said on Monday.

Mandiri would be “aggressive” in penetrating the cities to boost the use of its debit and credit cards and increase its e-channel transactions, he added.

The latest data from the bank showed that it had 3.6 million credit cards, 11.82 million debit cards and 262,855 EDC units as of September.

Mandiri senior executive vice president for transaction banking Rico Usthavia Frans said that next year, it would deploy around 50,000 additional EDC units to complement those in its existing operational areas.

They will include secondary and tertiary cities, such as Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Batam in the Riau Islands and Berastagi in North Sumatra.

At present, most of the EDC units are located in various merchants, especially supermarkets. “Grocery related activities still make up the majority of the transactions. We are seeing these activities increase in secondary and tertiary areas,” Rico said.

According to Riza Zulkifli, Mandiri’s senior vice president for mass banking, it expected to see the total number of its debit cards surge to at least 15 million cards by the end of 2015.

“New clients will get a debit card every time they open up a new savings account, but they don’t necessarily use the card due to lack of knowledge on its use. So the main challenge is to educate them,” he said over the telephone.

Meanwhile, Budi said that the lender was also on its way to establishing a new scheme to help the government finance major infrastructure projects and at the same time, expand its corporate business portfolio.

The new scheme, he added, would combine banking loan, government equity and debt paper issuance. While domestic banks can join forces to provide a syndicated loan, the government can come up with a certain amount of equity.

“The rest of the funds will be generated from government bonds. Mandiri can help find suitable investors and underwrite the bonds issuance. This will also be a solution to the funding issue in the banking industry,” he said. (Tassia Sipahutar)