Bank Jakarta and Bank Jatim on the Role of Regional Development Banks as Community Banks

The Regional Bank Summit 2026, themed ‘Strategic Transformation of BPDs in Driving National Development’, served as a strategic discussion forum bringing together regulators, leaders of Regional Development Banks (BPD), and stakeholders to discuss the institutional transformation of BPDs to support national development and the economy. Bank Jakarta President Director and ASBANDA Chairman, Agus Haryoto Widodo, stated that collaboration between BPDs through Joint Business Groups (KUB) is highly relevant for regional banks. In addition to strengthening capital, KUB is also expected to help accelerate business expansion and efficiency in building digital services and strengthening human resources. However, challenges remain regarding differing visions and interests among BPDs, capital and technology readiness, and lingering concerns about the loss of BPD identity. Meanwhile, Bank Jatim President Director, Winardi Legowo, noted that the key success factors for banking are capital, governance, systems, technology, and human resources, meaning the success of a BPD KUB is not solely determined by achieving the Rp 3 trillion capital threshold. For the KUB process to succeed, Bank Jatim stressed the importance of agreement on the vision and mission of KUB members, and that the benefits of KUB must be mutually advantageous for every member through business ecosystem synergy. Regarding the strengthening of cooperation between BPDs and Rural Banks (BPR) through the community bank model, BJTM sees challenges related to the synchronisation of business targets that are not yet aligned and incur costs. To overcome this, BPRs and BPDs can share market segments in credit distribution and synergise on digital services. Bank Jakarta views the potential for BPD and BPR cooperation as quite promising, but it must be placed within the right structure, where BPDs have better resources while BPRs have access to the micro segment, allowing them to be synergised in a form such as a linked programme that does not transfer risk from one party to another.