DBS to launch mobile-only banking service in Indonesia

The Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) plans to introduce a smartphone-based mobile banking option for the Indonesian market as a way to further digitalize the banks’ operations and utilize digital innovation to its advantage.

Digital transformation is part of a larger agenda for DBS, seeing that the need for digitalization is no longer seen by the banking industry as a threat to its business but as a tool of cooperation to innovate services, said Bank DBS Indonesia’s head of digital banking, Leonardo Koesmanto.

DBS will open a new mobile-only bank in Indonesia in the early part of the second quarter of 2017 to promote a more digital, branchless and signature-less experience for its customers in this market. The system will function through biometrics and will require the presence of an electronic ID (e-KTP) to register or use its operations.

“We are taking the more scalable digital route because these days, bigger banks are shrinking their number of branches. With this investment we can serve more people more effectively,” Leonardo said on Wednesday.

It is likely that DBS’s mobile-only banking option in Indonesia will be rolled out through a soft launch around next month, in order to assess the feasibility of the technology and root out teething faults. The idea has already been tried by DBS in India.

DBS currently has around 30 physical branches in Indonesia. Leonardo commented that in order for banks to truly achieve growth in a market, they would need 300 to 400 branches.