Citigroup, BII ink cooperation deal

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Global financial services company Citigroup and Indonesia's sixth largest bank, PT Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), have agreed to expand services to their customers by allowing them to transfer money to one another faster without the need for the standard inter-bank clearing process.

The agreement was signed by Citigroup country officer Peter B. Elliot and BII president director Henry Ho on Tuesday.

Elliott said the partnership would expand Citigroup's network services to customers, especially in areas where its branches were not available.

"Through BII's 250 branches across Indonesia, Citigroup customers are able to meet their financial needs at any of BII's branches. This helps our customers to make payment and collection transactions easier," he said after the signing ceremony.

Ho said the agreement also provided a good opportunity for the two banking giants to sell corporate and banking services and products to each other.

Citigroup's local head of cash management product and sales Rudy Tandjung said the potential of "cross-selling" products and services was huge because his company had approximately 500 customers, mostly multinational firms, across the country.

"Each of them may be dealing with hundreds of suppliers and distributors. We hope to be able to tap into at least 10 percent of them through this service," he said.

BII director for corporate and commercial transactions Dira K Mochtar said that cross-selling would not only allow BII to offer its lending products, but also to gain income from services.

"This could be one of our sources for fee-based income. In 2006, cash management is expected to be an engine for our fee- based income," Dira said.

He added that through this strategic alliance with Citigroup, BII would achieve this year's target to earn a net profit of between Rp 800 billion (US$80.81 million) and Rp 900 billion. (006)`