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Standard Chartered Bank, in cooperation with its local
partner, PermataBank, launched a new payment service Tuesday that
allows its customers to pay their insurance premiums through any bank
participating in the national joint ATM network.
Dubbed the "virtual account" service, it so far only applies to
customers of PT Allianz Life Indonesia, which, together with Standard
Chartered Bank and Permata, signed the agreement establishing the new
service Tuesday.
The new service will enable Allianz Indonesia's customers to pay their
bills through Permata branches and ATMs, as well as the ATMs of other
banks participating in the joint ATM network.
The agreement was signed by Allianz president director Jens Reich,
StanChart CEO Simon Morris and Permata president director Stewart D.
Hall (from left to right in picture above).
As part of the service, each customer will be assigned a unique
"virtual account" number based on their insurance policy number.
The uniqueness of the "virtual account" number is that it enables
Allianz to identify each and every insurance premium they have
received, thus answering data reconciliation problems and consumer
complaints about unidentified payments.
"We are very happy with this breakthrough as it will improve our
services to the customer and also help us create a more efficient and
effective operating system," Reich said.
As of the end of October, Allianz Indonesia had 100,000 customers with
total insurance coverage of Rp 780 billion (US$86.6 million).
Morris, meanwhile, said that he hoped the service could be expanded to
include payments to other insurers, as well as to airlines, and
property and automotive firms.
"We hope that with this service, we can attract more customers,"
Permata vice president C. Guntur Triyudianto said.
Permata, which is 89 percent owned by a consortium of StandChart and PT
Astra Internasional, has 307 branches in 35 cities and 576 ATMs around
the country.
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