Indonesia’s largest private bank enters digibank race with Blu app

BCA Digital, a subsidiary of Indonesian private bank BCA, has officially entered the country’s digital bank race by launching the Blu app. The company says that the app will be up starting on July 2 for Android users and will be available on iOS soon after that.

The banking giant is primed to compete with other digital banks that have launched their apps in Indonesia, such as the Gojek-backed Bank Jago with Jago, Bank BTPN with Jenius, and Line Bank. Several startups have also established their digital bank initiatives, including Sea Group with Seabank Indonesia and Akulaku with Bank Neo Commerce.

Blu app / Image credit: Blu

The Blu app allows users to open a savings account online, which can be split into 10 sub-accounts. It also lets users invite their friends to create a joint account that they can monitor together. While a Blu account is separate from a BCA account, users can still access BCA’s automatic teller machines and call center through the Blu app.

The groundwork for BCA Digital was laid when BCA acquired a smaller bank called Bank Royal in 2019 and transformed it to PT Bank Digital BCA. It spent around US$70 million to buy 99.99% of the company’s shares from previous shareholders.

According to BCA Digital chief executive Lanny Budiati, the Blu app is looking to onboard users that haven’t been customers of BCA as well as future banking ones. It is targeting to get hundreds of thousand users by the end of the year.

BCA itself is part of the Indonesian conglomerate Djarum Group, which also has several tech portfolio firms such as ecommerce startup Blibli and online travel company Tiket.com. It also has shares in Gojek, the super-app giant that recently merged with Tokopedia.

BCA Digital says that one of its focuses is to build the ecosystem behind the Blu app to support customers’ activities. To start with, it will allow users to open Blu accounts from the Blibli app and do top ups for their GoPay e-wallet.