Within the region, OCBC’s network stretches from Singapore to China, including Malaysia and Hong Kong. This is a boon to foreign investors setting up shop in Indonesia, especially for southbound investments from Greater China.
“What most local banks do not have is the connection to China,” adds Widjaja, who joined OCBC Indonesia from HSBC in 2012. “Will the Chinese banks have a greater presence in China? Naturally, but if you compare their presence in Indonesia, at maximum, they have 25 to 30 branches, versus our 200 plus. Our headcount? Close to 7,000. No matter how you look at it, in terms of facilitating the desire to do business in Indonesia, we have quite a big advantage.”
Attracting fund flows from Greater China towards Asean is central to OCBC’s three-year masterplan, unveiled in July 2023. Outgoing group CEO Helen Wong had announced a slew of targets across wholesale, investment and private banking.
Widjaja is confident that OCBC Indonesia’s 6,386 staff, working in 205 office networks in 54 cities across the country, is a superior choice for Chinese businesses looking to expand.
In some ways, he is right; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), a major Chinese bank, lists just 15 Indonesian branches on its website. By assets, OCBC Indonesia ranked eighth in its market as of March, having grown 16.1% y-o-y — the greatest among peers.
After all, OCBC Indonesia has an 84-year history in the country, having been established in 1941 as Nederlandsch Indische Spaar en Deposito Bank (Bank NISP). In 2004, OCBC became the first Singapore bank to acquire a banking stake in Indonesia, with a 22.5% stake in Bank NISP, which has since increased to about 85% today.
See also: OCBC analysts maintain Indonesia’s growth forecast despite protests
OCBC Indonesia also grew inorganically by acquiring the Indonesian banking subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The acquisition of PT Bank Commonwealth (PTBC) in May 2024, followed by the merger of PTBC into OCBC in September 2024, was OCBC Indonesia’s “most significant milestone in 2024”, says Parwati Surjaudaja, president director and CEO of OCBC Indonesia.
At the time, the acquisition was touted to add wealth management capabilities and more than 1.2 million PTBC customers to OCBC Indonesia. Surjaudaja says the acquisition boosted the bank’s consumer and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segments, including wealth management and automotive joint financing.
Setting up shop
At 283.5 million, Indonesia’s population presents an attractive market to foreign firms, says Widjaja. With government policies geared towards domestic investment, he notes a shift away from simply selling goods to Indonesians; businesses now want to set up manufacturing operations in the country.
When OCBC Indonesia first hosted the OCBC One Connect forum three years ago with nine customers, it was simply “matchmaking” Chinese producers with Indonesian distributors, says Widjaja. “Today, the mood has shifted; they want to set up local operations here.”
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At OCBC One Connect 2025 in Jakarta, close to 60 business leaders toured industrial parks, heard from policymakers and met with industry peers over Aug 26 and 27.
“We have a deep network across the country; we know who’s who in major cities. So, everywhere, whichever way they want to go, we are there to help,” says Widjaja. “From finding a good location for their F&B franchise, all the way to finding the correct local partner as a distributor for them, or to find the best industrial estate that is closer to the port — that’s our role in Indonesia.”
OCBC Indonesia has expanded its China business customer base by over 50% over the past three years, and business volume has more than tripled to over US$500 million ($644.46 million), he adds.
In 1HFY2025 ended June 30, OCBC Indonesia recorded a net profit of IDR2.57 trillion ($200 million), 7% higher y-o-y. This growth was supported by a 14% y-o-y rise in total operating income, while total loans grew 2% y-o-y to IDR166.34 trillion.
While OCBC Indonesia’s domestic business accounts for the largest income contribution, its Chinese business CAGR is 50%, notes Widjaja. “So, we are seeing a bigger contribution moving forward with the influx of Chinese investment here.”
To better understand the needs of Chinese businesses, OCBC Indonesia has a team of six staff — comprising five local Chinese speakers and one Mainland Chinese — dedicated to serving these clients.
“The main challenge would be cultural differences. When you are servicing the Chinese business, they want everything to be done fast,” says Widjaja.
Anecdotally, one industrial park leasing manager says Japanese manufacturers typically take more than a year to decide whether to set up a factory in Indonesia, but their Chinese counterparts could take just four months between initial talks and breaking ground on a new plant.
In terms of banking needs, Widjaja says business leaders “just want to focus on their business and not get entangled by banking transactions”. “Frankly speaking, what they want is not so sophisticated.”
Widjaja side-stepped questions about the business banking services with the most lucrative margins. Instead, he says general account services and foreign exchange constitute the “majority of [businesses’] transaction requirements”.
One of OCBC Indonesia's 27 'Premium Guest Houses', where customers can meet staff and discuss their personal and business banking needs
Going for scale
Roy Tan, head of enterprise banking international at OCBC, says there are “big chains” that the bank is “presently either working on or trying to work with”. “Usually, what we look out for are chains that are in different markets or in more than one market … A bubble tea shop that is only setting up shop in, say, Singapore — I would be less interested.”
With its regional network, OCBC is eyeing clients that can match its heft. Tan says the bank prefers working with clients “concurrently” across multiple markets. “That’s what we feel we are good at.”
Most Chinese firms share this view. “One of the key differences between the Chinese and perhaps other nationalities is that they think about things on a huge scale, because they are very used to scale back home in China,” says Tan, who is based in Singapore.
Even Jakarta, which is 10% smaller than Singapore, is more dense. “You talk about five stores in Singapore, that’s like wow. But here, having five stores is a drop in the ocean,” Tan adds.
An F&B chain could open five stores in a single corner in Jakarta, quips Widjaja. “Maybe in the south part of Jakarta, you could have five stores; in the north, you could have 15.”
Photos: OCBC
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