Jakarta. Astra launched Monday the digital banking service platform Bank Saqu which seeks to cater to Indonesian youth, particularly solopreneurs or people who are building their business on their own.

The platform is a collaboration between the Hong Kong-based financial technology firm WeLab and financial service provider Astra Financial.

“The reason why we are targeting solopreneurs is because we notice that many Indonesian young people have taken side hustles. As digital transformation grows, coupled with the emergence of e-commerce and social commerce, people are more likely to take side gigs,” Leo Koesmanto, the president director of Bank Jasa Jakarta, said at the Bang Saqu launch in Jakarta on Monday.

“While we have soloproneurs are our main positioning, everyone in Indonesia can use Bank Saqu,” Leo said.

According to Leo, some of the key features that Bank Saqu has includes the Saqu feature.

This lets people open up to 20 customized pockets to make it easier for people to manage their side hustle income and savings. There is also the Buspasito. Customers can drive up the interest rate in a fun way with their family, friends, or the whole Bank Saqu community. More people joining Busposito means that everyone can earn a higher rate of up to 7 percent p.a. There are also rewarding missions and Saku Booster.

Suparno Djasmin, the director of Astra and the director-in-charge at Astra Financial, said there remains a huge room for growth in the banking industry. Indonesia is also home to a quite large underbanked and unbanked population, and Bank Saqu should work to meet the people’s needs by providing innovative products.

“Bank Saqu will be connected to Astra’s ecosystem. It will also complement our business ecosystem by strengthening the composition of the retail financial service providers,” Suparno said.

WeLab’s chief executive officer and founder Simon Loong also commented on Bank Saqu. He added: “I’m very confident that Bank Saqu will be a very good bank, combining the strength of Astra, the understanding of the market, the ecosystem, and the technology of WeLab.”

Astra and WeLab completed the acquisition of Bank Jasa Jakarta last year.

Add as a preferred source on Google +