In 2022, Indonesia’s largest private bank was one of the nation’s best-performing wealth managers. Bank Central Asia recorded a 24.8% jump in net profit, year on year, amid robust gains in net interest income and a sizable drop in provisioning thanks to improving loan and asset quality.
That’s no small feat, considering last year’s epic gyrations in the Indonesian economy, the rupiah and Jakarta stocks, and aggressive central bank tightening around the world.
Despite the rocky backdrop, BCA’s transaction banking business grew 15.1%. Its third-party funds gained 11%. As a result, BCA’s total assets grew by 10.2% and its market share ended the year at 12.4%, helping it to retain its status as the largest private bank by assets in Indonesia.
BCA operates just over 1,000 branch offices around the nation. To drive growth, it is scaling up its wealth management services by broadening the range and quality of its investment solutions, while strengthening client engagement.
The group offers its exclusive premier banking services through BCA Solitaire & Prioritas – BCA Solitaire targeting clients with average investable assets of Rp5 billion ($322,118) a year, and Prioritas those with Rp500 million.
One recent move from BCA is migrating its wealth management system to Avaloq Core, the Swiss software company that sells core banking technology. Bringing Avaloq on board has streamlined BCA’s back- and front-office functions. As BCA’s director Haryanto Budiman – who is in charge of wealth management, consumer credit and customer business development – explains, the partnership will help the bank achieve its long-term strategy of scaling up its wealth management services with a unified platform.
The partnership shows BCA’s ambitions to accelerate its digital journey in order to boost its market share further, while keeping its HNW clientele happy.
Rapid digitalization has raised BCA’s stature as a hybrid bank, meaning it offers a wide range of transaction channels digitally to maximize efficiency and convenience, while still using a personalized touch for its offerings. The goal is to create a larger digital ecosystem. That would likely grow the customer base and increase collaboration with external strategic partners, Avaloq being a model.
Naturally, mobile banking has been a priority. By the end of 2022, the number of online account openings via the BCA mobile app reached 3.1 million, a 33% rise, year on year. Its myBCA app has been steadily adding features to its offering of wealth management services for mutual funds and secondary market bond transactions, appealing also to the next-generation wealthy.
BCA Solitaire & Prioritas served more than 180,000 customers by the end of November 2022, managing current account and savings accounts of over Rp200 trillion.