Kuala Lumpur, February 21, 2019 – Publicly-listed state lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia or BNI received awards from Alpha Southeast Asia for Best Remittance Provider in Southeast Asia 2018 and Best Cash Management Solution in Southeast Asia-BNI’s ecosystem based eduPATROL & Smart Tenant during the 12th Annual Best Deal & Solution Awards.
The awards were presented by Alpha Southeast Asia CEO Siddiq Bazarwala to BNI International Division head Eko Setyo Nugroho in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.
Eko said the award was a form of appreciation from Alpha Southeast Asia to Southeast Asia’s lenders, which have shown excellent performance. The Best Remittance Provider in Southeast Asia 2018 award was given at a time when the volume and number of BNI remittance had grown 14.2 percent and 20 percent, respectively in 2018 from the previous year.
BNI’s success in being given the 10th award is inseparable from the innovations it develops to meet the need of BNI customers, especially Indonesian migrant workers.
To meet the needs of customers who want accessible remittance services, BNI developed in 2018 digital remittance services in cooperation with financial technology companies based in Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, several lenders across the world and retailers from various countries.
Migrant worker empowerment
As part of Indonesian migrant worker empowerment, BNI conducted capacity building for migrant workers in 2018 in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
The capacity building training consists of soft skills and hard skills. During the soft skills training, BNI presented former migrant work who have since become successful entrepreneurs in Indonesia. It is hoped it will motivate migrant workers to return to Indonesia and become entrepreneurs.
Hard skills training includes certified training practices to become makeup artists, baristas, caregivers, reflexologists, floral decorators and hydroponic farmers. Hopefully, after attending the training, the migrant workers will have basic knowledge to start businesses in Indonesia.
“BNI does not solely focus only on remittance business. We will continue migrant worker empowerment to support the government program to empower its citizens abroad. We hope they will become successful entrepreneurs upon returning to Indonesia,” Eko said.
Cash Management Award
On the same occasion, BNI was also given the Best Cash Management Solution in Southeast Asia-BNI’s ecosystem based eduPATROL & Smart Tenant award. BNI received the award because the state lender had been successful in creating a breakthrough with its digital innovation targeting a specific ecosystem in Indonesia. It also shows digital technology can be applied easily to increase the welfare of Indonesian people.
In this case, BNI offers advanced, integrated and comprehensive solutions focusing on ecosystem that creates a value chain and increases financial transactions through banking services for education and property ecosystems. Those solutions are called BNI eduPATROL and BNI Smart Tenant.
Since it was marketed in mid-2017 until the end of 2018, 32 schools have joined BNI eduPATROL with the number of transactions having increased from 163 to 3,200 transactions from January to December 2018.
BNI is the first bank to provide solutions for education at the elementary, high school and university level with easy payments as well as bridging communication between schools and parents.
To beat competitors in the property sector, BNI has provided BNI Smart Tenant since June 2018, which helps corporate management and tenants monitor bills and payment. The number of transactions in the second half of 2018 stood at 76,688 transactions.