The largest bank by assets in Indonesia is also the most digitally savvy in southeast Asia’s biggest economy. One doesn’t naturally flow from the other, but Bank Rakyat Indonesia is proving that its size is no impediment to being nimble as tech disruption upends the region.
For 2023, BRI is Asiamoney’s best domestic private bank and best digital private bank in Indonesia.
Many things make BRI a frontrunner in Indonesia’s wealth industry. First is its focus on staying with customers through their wealth journey.
It works with clients in the micro and retail segments with wealth of less than Rp500 million ($32,212), as well as those in the priority segment with assets of between Rp500 million and Rp15 billion, and those in its private business with assets of more than Rp15 billion.
BRI – whose head of private banking is Fatah Aji – provides them with bancassurance solutions to protect their wealth, investment options to grow their wealth and advisory solutions to meet their wealth planning requirements.
A lot of this is viewed through a digital lens. Here, the private bank leverages the broader firm’s digital prowess and focus on financial inclusion. BRI group supports the unbanked, as well as entrepreneurs and founders of tech unicorn startups. This is creating new wealth that private banks can manage for newly affluent clients.
This sort of virtuous cycle is benefiting BRI’s wealth management business.
Despite the global market turmoil and Indonesia’s many Covid infection waves, assets under management rose 22% in 2022, year on year. The number of wealth customers rose 23% to nearly 117,000 and fee-based income jumped 27%.
The private banking team cites a few factors contributing to BRI’s significant competitive advantage.
One, of course, is BRI’s wide reach. BRI boasts the biggest customer base in southeast Asia: its brand handles the financial needs of 130 million customers, or roughly 45% of Indonesia’s population.
Having more than 127 years of experience doesn’t hurt, especially given BRI’s openness to technological reinvention. The private banking division actively harnesses the bank’s legacy and sprawling network of 9,000 branches and sub-branches, and locations in 34 provinces.
Another advantage: the wide-ranging connections an institution of such systematic importance in Indonesia can bring to the table. BRI’s wealth management unit can operate in the orbit of the largest state-owned financial conglomerates in Indonesia.
This brings certain advantages, including preferred access to venture capital, securities companies, insurance companies, and the top investment management firms. It enables BRI’s private bankers to offer a level of products and services that customers would have difficulty finding elsewhere.
BRI’s wealth team prides itself on offering best-in-class investment propositions. For clients in a conservative, risk-off state of mind it has a wide range of low-risk investment products. These include government bonds, money market mutual funds and protection products like bancassurance. For those in risk-on mode, BRI is an industry leader in structured products with more than 70 product variations.
The bank is well known for its ability to address customers’ complex needs. It excels at tailored advisory, using a hyper-personalized investment approach based on specific goals and conditions.
Through all this, BRI proves that, sometimes, bigger really is better.