FST Media: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?

Haryadi: Looking for mobile banking penetration in the Indonesian market is our priority over the next 12 months to 18 months. This includes building mobile banking and other digital services to be part of Bank Muamalat strategy in Indonesia’s diverse market. We are now in the process of setting up a digital service through mobile banking, internet banking and agent chains to penetrate the market.

One of our strategies is to penetrate the community mass-market – we currently have 3000 agents for online payment counters which will enhanced the service and enable achieve this. We have successfully built our debit online (e-Commerce) for online purchases and are in the process of revamping our mobile banking with capabilities for transactions and customer touch points.

In 2009, Bank Muamalat initiated a transformation to be the most valued Sharia bank by putting together our business model, process, distribution and market penetration as a foundation for growth. IT and management activities related to IT were core initiatives, and not complimentary, for our transformation strategy. From 2010 to 2012, we began revamping our IT infrastructure by replacing our core banking system and switching system. We continue growing our branch and ATM network to accomplish this vision. We were also successful in implementing our internet banking and are in the process of revamping our mobile banking as a strategic channel. 

FST Media: What will be the most significant challenge facing the banking industry in the year ahead?

Haryadi: The most significant challenge facing the banking industry is how to adapt in a high speed, effective and efficient way to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. The adoption of process for servicing customers is a never ending task to make life convenient for our customers and gain their trust. Innovation has become an important key in building bank uniqueness and creating distinctive capabilities.

The bank has to know its own strengths, and how to overcome their weakness and capture the market opportunity and handling threats presented. It is the key for the bank to manage the value chain of process, financial models and in depth sales and relationships to beat the competition. The challenges posed are how to coordinate this internally and how to compete with the external market.

FST Media: How has Muamalat Mobile added value to the business, and how will you measure success?

Haryadi: We are aware that mobile has grown significantly in terms of market penetration and technology development. It is a must for us to use mobile as an added value for our business. We are currently developing access to our customers via mobile. We plan to give customers the experience that our mobile application is not only a way to make bank transactions but also as a value-added way for customers to find information and more so as a social network for customers.

These features will make customers feel closer to Bank Muamalat and make our mobile channel stand out as an open access channel. We will measure its success by looking at the number of customers who download the application, use the application and even recommend the application to be downloaded by others. We hope for it to become a topic which is spoken about on social media.

FST Media: How will you continue to build on SMS, mobile and internet banking in the future, and what do you hope to achieve?

Haryadi: We plan to build those platforms to become one click away from our customers fingertips. We hope the concept will encourage customer engagement with our application with those offers integrated and not perceived as banking needs. In addition, we want to be known as a digital banking branch.

FST Media: What steps is Bank Muamalat taking to reach the unbanked population of Indonesia through online and mobile channels?

Haryadi: We are currently preparing to capture the unbanked population while we review and wait for Central Bank regulation. We are in the process of building an ecosystem around the needs for that segment.

FST Media: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised banking products?

Haryadi: As part of our mission to accomplish the most valued Sharia bank, we have begun to enhance the quality of our data sources, while we are also in the process of building our data warehouse. This is in line with our plan on building an IT infrastructure and applications and build on our IT people. This is the ecosystem that we must have to enable us to be more personalised to customer, to run the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM).

FST Media: What is proving to be your most effective customer acquisition channel and why?

Haryadi: My experience is that community events with one-stop services which are backed-up by e-channels are most effective. As a community, people are more easily persuaded and are more impulsive, and equipped with e-channels to complete the transaction (such as e-forms, service for payment, purchase) makes the customer feel more comfortable.

FST Media: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends?

Haryadi: The tools that keep me abreast are to read and use social networking as much as possible. I also like to try out cutting edge technology if it is available in the market.

FST Media: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you ever received?

Haryadi: To always keep an open mind toward innovation, to enjoy your work and being valued in your industry and community and to hold on to your integrity and professionalism.

FST Media: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for, what is yours?

Haryadi: It is not only about the result of your work or innovation but also, most importantly, people will always recall how you delivered the output of your work. People will recall your frame of work, professionalism and integrity.