PT. Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BNI), one of Indonesia's largest state-owned banks, has accelerated customer onboarding by approximately 25% after unifying its domestic and international trade finance operations on Finastra's Trade Innovation platform, marking a significant milestone in the bank's digital transformation journey and positioning it at the forefront of modern trade finance in Southeast Asia.
The centralized deployment replaced multiple legacy systems and is delivering shorter approval cycles, enhanced operational efficiency, and a single source of truth for reporting across BNI's regional footprint. The transformation demonstrates how traditional banks are leveraging advanced fintech solutions to modernize trade finance operations and meet growing customer expectations for speed, transparency, and seamless cross-border services.
BNI selected Finastra's Trade Innovation solution to consolidate siloed trade finance processes, modernize compliance capabilities, and enable real-time processing and analytics. Finastra, a global leader in financial services software, provided end-to-end implementation and co-innovation services, while a local systems integrator supported on-site deployment and localization to ensure the platform met Indonesia's specific regulatory requirements.
BNI initially operated separate local instances for its overseas offices but is now completing the migration of nine international locations onto a central instance in Jakarta. This approach streamlines group-level processing while preserving local regulatory controls, enabling the bank to maintain compliance with diverse jurisdictional requirements while benefiting from centralized oversight and standardized workflows.
Since deployment, BNI has realized measurable operational and customer-experience gains that underscore the strategic value of the platform transformation. Customer onboarding has accelerated by approximately 25%, helping the bank deliver a number of trade services with service-level agreements of under three hours—a significant improvement that enhances competitiveness in a market where speed and reliability are critical differentiators.
Automated compliance workflows and straight-through processing have significantly reduced approval times, with most approval decisions now completed within one day compared to the multi-day processes that characterized the legacy system environment. This acceleration not only improves customer satisfaction but also reduces operational costs and frees up staff to focus on higher-value advisory services.
The platform has supported a 10% increase in customer acquisition in the current fiscal year and underpins BNI's growing digital trade business across more than 160 branches and over 2,645 trade customers. The centralized architecture facilitates advanced analytics, enhanced risk modeling, and easier integration with fintech and AI partners, supporting the bank's ongoing modernization efforts and positioning it to rapidly deploy new products and services.
I G W Anantayoga, General Manager of Wholesale Product Transaction & Value Chain Division at BNI, characterized the collaboration as a strategic partnership that extends beyond technology implementation: "Our relationship with Finastra is a strategic partnership. We collaborate not just on technology, but on shaping the future of trade transactions within BNI, across Indonesia, and beyond."
Anantayoga emphasized the seamless integration with BNI's core banking system, noting that the solution provides instant insights that enable the bank to process trade documents quickly and accurately. "Most approval decisions are made within a day, strengthening the customer experience. At the same time, automation has significantly streamlined operations and delivered measurable efficiencies," he explained.
The Trade Innovation platform's ability to provide real-time visibility into trade finance operations represents a fundamental shift from the fragmented, batch-oriented processes that characterized BNI's previous technology environment. The single source of truth for reporting enables more effective risk management, better capital allocation decisions, and enhanced regulatory reporting capabilities.
Andrew Bateman, EVP for Lending at Finastra, highlighted the strategic importance of trade finance modernization in today's competitive banking landscape: "Modernizing trade finance is essential for banks to serve their customers faster and to collaborate effectively with fintech and AI innovators. Working with BNI, we delivered a scalable, centralized Trade Innovation platform that streamlines compliance, enhances straight-through processing, and positions the bank for rapid product innovation across its regional footprint."
The centralized architecture not only improves current operations but also creates a foundation for future innovation. The platform's open architecture and API capabilities enable BNI to more easily integrate with emerging fintech solutions, blockchain-based trade finance networks, and artificial intelligence tools for document processing and risk assessment.
For BNI's corporate and SME customers, the practical benefits center on faster transaction processing, greater transparency into the status of trade finance applications, and more predictable service delivery. The ability to receive approvals within one day rather than multiple days can significantly improve working capital management and enable businesses to respond more quickly to market opportunities.
The implementation also positions BNI to better serve Indonesia's growing export sector and support the country's integration into regional and global supply chains. As trade volumes between Indonesia and its major trading partners continue to expand, efficient trade finance processing becomes increasingly critical to maintaining competitiveness.
Headquartered in Jakarta, BNI serves over 2,645 trade customers across retail, corporate, and SME segments. The bank has more than 160 branches nationwide currently handling trade services and trade finance transactions, and maintains a growing digital footprint that focuses on financial inclusion, digital innovation, and sustainable banking, especially in the transactional banking sector.
The successful deployment of Trade Innovation follows a broader industry trend in which banks across Asia-Pacific are modernizing trade finance infrastructure to compete more effectively with digital-native fintech platforms and meet evolving customer expectations. Traditional trade finance processes, often characterized by paper-intensive workflows and manual compliance checks, are increasingly being replaced by digital platforms that enable faster processing, better risk management, and enhanced customer experience.
Finastra's Trade Innovation platform is trusted by financial institutions worldwide to manage complex trade finance operations, including letters of credit, guarantees, collections, and supply chain finance. The solution's ability to handle multiple jurisdictions, currencies, and regulatory frameworks makes it particularly well-suited for banks with regional or global operations.
For BNI, the transformation represents a significant step in its broader digital banking strategy. The bank has been investing heavily in technology modernization across multiple business lines, recognizing that digital capabilities are essential to maintaining market leadership in Indonesia's rapidly evolving banking sector.
The 25% improvement in customer onboarding speed and the 10% increase in customer acquisition demonstrate the tangible business impact of the platform transformation. These metrics suggest that the investment in Trade Innovation is delivering measurable returns while positioning BNI for continued growth in the trade finance market.
Looking ahead, the centralized platform provides BNI with the flexibility to rapidly deploy new trade finance products, expand into new markets, and integrate emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence. The bank's ability to leverage advanced analytics and risk modeling capabilities will enable more sophisticated credit decisioning and portfolio management.
The collaboration between BNI and Finastra illustrates how partnerships between traditional banks and specialized fintech providers can drive meaningful innovation in financial services. By combining BNI's deep market knowledge and customer relationships with Finastra's technology expertise and global best practices, the partnership has delivered a solution that addresses real business challenges while creating a foundation for future growth.