OCBC NISP's CEO talks of plans to collaborate with OCBC Al Amin Malaysia

This is to expand the bank's Sharia business.

As the CEO of OCBC NISP, an Indonesian financial services company owned and managed by Singaporean bank OCBC, Parwati Surjaudaja constantly needs to handle credit risk as commodities and mining sectors, which have been the key growth pillars for many years, continue to face challenges.

However, with the upward trend on consumer confidence on Indonesian government shown by recent surveys and the encouraging result of governmental policies, Parwati says the Indonesian economy will hopefully grow faster as macro economy condition and household spending continue to get more stable.

"The other trend is in relation to the government's effort to enable single digit lending rate in Indonesia. Bank Indonesia’s initiative in cutting interest rate three times since beginning of the year and further setting of new reference rate per August 2016 have shown strong determination from the government to achieve that condition. While single digit lending rate needs to be well anticipated by banks, it should create better environment for economic revival and competitiveness. Going forward, Indonesia’s banking sector will benefit from the revival of Indonesian economy while at the same time face the challenge of lower margin," says Parwati.

In an exclusive interview with Asian Banking and Finance, Parwati revealed her key business philosophies, goals, and other plans especially with regard to the Islamic banking sector:

ABF: What do you consider as your biggest achievement so far as the CEO of OCBC NISP?
Steering and pulling the organization through many new challenges by adopting and building new business units/models to expand our scope of services, improving customer experience, and increasing our technical capabilities while maintaining the same corporate culture of caring and prudence; which include merging with Bank OCBC Indonesia (BOI) in 2011 with minimal transition time of less than 1 year.

The outcome has been encouraging with 252% growth in size and 374% in profitability from 2008. What most satisfying are the sustainability of our results and the consistency in our delivery. We continue to build a strong culture and foundation for innovations, collaboration, and alignments in all our business units as to create value add benefits for our customers.

ABF: What are your key business philosophies?

• Strong and sustainable growth by maintaining win-win relationship with all stakeholders

• Integrity which is always on the top of our mind. Banking industry is more than managing people’s funds. It is a business of trust. Therefore, integrity is a hygienic factor in this industry.

• Continuous learning and unlearning. As the world evolves quickly, what was relevant 5-10 years ago may not be the same in today’s context. Fundamental major shifts in technology, people generation and regulatory changes have caused disruptions that need to be anticipated and managed. In order to survive, we need to constantly to learn and unlearn in order to be able to adapt.

ABF: What three goals are you focused on?

• Continuing sustainable business growth and maintaining good quality portfolio.

• Improving efficiency and productivity

• Intensifying strong working culture and staff engagement

ABF: Please tell us more about your recent projects/initiatives in the bank, especially in terms of developing the Islamic banking segment?

• Customer focused - The objective of this initiative is to understand customer need then we have to work well internally - better synergy and collaboration across functions in the bank - in order to provide effective solutions to our customers. Transformation in various elements in the organization and changes in the mindset are expected to translate into better service for the customers and more engagement for the employees as well.

• On sharia business, Bank OCBC NISP continues to support national sharia banking through its Sharia Business Unit (SBU). We currently have 10 branches accross the region (Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang, Makassar, Medan, Balikpapan, Palembang, Pontianak and Batam).

To accelerate the growth we are looking into collaborating with OCBC Al Amin Malaysia in order to expand our business penetration. Meanwhile, we continue to optimize our market penetration through network of Sharia Office Channeling and continue to improve our capabilities and infrastructure to support sustainable business growth.

ABF: What do you hope to achieve in the next 2-3 years?
By continuously focus on our customers and our quality, we aspire to have stronger brand positioning in the industry.

ABF: Is there anything else you want our readers at ABF to know about OCBC NISP?
Our 75 years presence in Indonesia gives us a deep and complete understanding on Indonesia economy and local sentiments to confidently provide effective banking solutions for our customers.

With the strong synergy and support from OCBC Group, we will continue to strengthen our presence as a local bank with regional capabilities and global network.