BTN Collects Rp10 Trillion Throught BTN Priority Service

Jakarta, June 9 (Antara) - State lender PT Bank Tabungan Negara said it has succeeded in collecting Rp10 trillion in third party fund from middle to high class segments of customers through its "BTN Priority" scheme. "BTN Priority constitutes a strategy to strengthen its retail funds by offering special services for middle to high class segments of customers," a director of the publicly traded bank Mansyur S. Nasution said here on Monday. On Friday last week BTN opened again a BTN Priority service in Manado, North Sulawesi , the 26th of its branch offering the premium service, Mansyur said. He said currently there are more than 7,500 customers receiving the BTN Priority service all over the country. "We will continue to seek to increase the number of customers and draw larger retail fund. The fund collected through the scheme will contribute to the total amount of third party funds held by the bank," he said. � He said BTN Priority is a strategy to increase the bank`s third party funds amid the tight competition among banks to draw the public funds. By the end of March 2014, BTN had Rp102 trillion in third party fund or an increase of 17.44 percent from a year earlier. Mansyur said the opening of the BTN Priority service office in Manado is part of the business plan of BTN for 2014 , adding business expansion in North Sulawesi necessitated the opening of the premium service for local business players. Earlier BTN already opened 25 offices of BTN Priority offering premium service in other areas. "Hopefully the office in Manado would contribute to economic development in in that area," Mansyur said The scheme was first introduced by the end of 2010 and now BTN Priority has been presence in various areas and cities . In the Greater Jakarta area, BTN Priority offices are open in Harmoni, Kuningan, Kelapa Gading, Melawai, Cawang, Bekasi, Kebon Jeruk, Depok, Tangerang and Bogor. Other offices are open in Surabaya, Semarang, Malang, Bandung, Solo, Yogyakarta, Pekanbaru, Batam, Palembang, Padang, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Pontianak, Makassar and Denpasar. BTN Priority serves to help the government sell retail bonds and sharia bonds. "There are quite many merchants operating with BTN Priority. Through the cooperation the merchants are expected to add to the services given to the BTN Priority customers," -Mansyur said Soon BTN would launch the product of bancassurance and mutual fund in cooperation with larger insurance companies in Indonesia, he said. BTN has 843 branches both conventional and sharia banks, and 2,922 outlets of Online Post office. It has 1,806 units of ATM all over Indonesia and more than 40,000 ATM connected with ATM Link, Bersama and Prima.