JAKARTA: CIMB Group yesterday inked an agreement with PT Aprisma Indonesia, forming a strategic partnership to roll out BizChannel across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

“In view of our strategy to grow our current and saving accounts (CASA) and fee income as well as embed our branding as a solid transaction bank in Asean, this project is to introduce a single Internet-based front-end platform for corporates, consolidating both trade finance and cash management products and services,” said Arwin Rasyid, president director of PT Bank CIMB Niaga, Tbk.

Speaking at the signing ceremony here yesterday, he said Aprisma’s technology included simple features from letter of credit openings to complex supply chain modules under trade finance with new account structure models and mobile authorisation under cash management. It also contains enterprise resource planning integration capabilities.

CIMB group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak signed the agreement while PT Aprisma Indonesia was represented by its chairman Iljas Ridwan.

Arwin said the project was also to unify CIMB’s Transaction Banking franchise across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand and to promote “Forward Banking” by introducing BizChannel as the regional champion product for transaction banking.

This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, August 3, 2010.