Indonesia: 'Floating bank' launched to serve customers in coastal areas and remote islands

Promotional video clip promoting the launch of the floating bank

State-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia has launched its first ever floating bank to provide banking services to customers living in coastal areas and on remote islands.

The on-boat banking services or Teras BRI Kapal will initially serve residents on the Thousand Islands regency off north Jakarta. More boats will be launched to serve customers on other remote islands, Jakarta Post reports.

"We want to provide services for people in coastal areas who previously did not receive optimum banking services," the bank's President Director Asmawi Syam said on Tuesday (4 August).

The boat serving Thousand Islands regency will provide banking services to existing and potential customers on six islands - Pramuka Island, Tidung Island, Kepala Island, Untung Jawa Island, Harapan Island and Panggang Island.

The islands have a total of 7,948 residents.

The boat will be manned by 11 staff, including crew, guards and four bank officers - a teller, a customer service officer and two account officers. It will be in operation from Monday to Friday.

The floating bank's services on offer are similar to the bank's branches, it said. The services are an extension to its mobile car banking services, the newspaper said.

The bank will invest $1.11m (£710,872, €1.02m) on each boat and plans to launch a new floating bank boat every year, Bank Rakyat Indonesia's Vice President Director Sunarso said.

"We are looking at the eastern part of Indonesia to identify which areas need banking services the most," Sunarso said.

Additional floating banks will be operating in areas like Ternate in North Maluku, Bau-bau in Southeast Sulawesi and Tanjung Selor in North Kalimantan.

The newspaper said that the bank is on track to launch its own satellite at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana in June next year, which will support the floating services.

The satellite, to be named BRIsat, will cost about $250m (£160m, €228.927) and will make Bank Rakyat Indonesia the first bank in the world to have its own satellite, Jakarta Post said.