Indonesia’s digital banks have shown that customers can be acquired at scale through mobile applications and partnerships with established platforms. The harder challenge is converting those accounts into active, profitable and enduring relationships.

Bank Jago is focusing on transaction activity, direct deposits, investment connectivity and lending. Nicholas Tan, Head of Retail Banking at Bank Jago, said the bank was building on its early success within the GoTo ecosystem while developing stronger relationships with customers through its own application.

At September 2026, Bank Jago reported 19 million customers, including 13.1 million funding customers using the Jago application. This is the bank’s customer classification, not a measure of monthly active users. Deposits increased 21% year on year to IDR 28.9 trillion (about $1.6 billion), loans rose 19% to IDR 27.9 trillion (about $1.5 billion) and assets reached IDR 42.1 trillion (about $2.3 billion). Net profit for the first nine months rose 50% to IDR 298 billion (about $16 million).

Tan said active users were conducting approximately 35 transactions a month, against about 17 in 2022. He also estimated that directly generated digital deposits had grown from around one-third of total deposits at end-2024 to almost half. These interview estimates are indicators of engagement, not independently disclosed activity or deposit measures.

The question is whether deeper use can sustain funding, increase income and improve returns without materially increasing credit or operating risk.

Beyond ecosystem-led acquisition

Bank Jago initially expanded through partnerships, notably with GoTo as well as Bibit and Stockbit ecosystems. GoPay Tabungan by Jago allows eligible GoPay users to open bank accounts and access deposit services from their GoPay app without a traditional branch relationship.

Such distribution can bring customers into the bank efficiently, but an account opened for a platform-specific purpose might not always become a primary banking relationship. Tan said Jago was therefore placing greater emphasis on direct acquisition and use of its own application.

He estimated direct customer acquisition cost at about IDR 30,000 (about $2) per customer. The figure is a management estimate for the approach described, not an audited blended acquisition cost across all channels. It is commercially meaningful only if customers subsequently retain balances, transact and use services that justify their ongoing servicing costs.

Pockets as a tool for everyday money management

Jago’s Pockets feature is intended to make the bank useful for different financial purposes rather than hold a single undifferentiated balance. This is in reference to the traditional way of managing money by keeping different pools of money in separate envelopes. Tan said customers could create up to 60 pockets, each with its own account number, for spending, saving or shared activities.

Savings and locked pockets encourage customers to set money aside, while shared pockets allow authorised people to access, transact, or manage funds. Tan said the feature could also support arisan, the Indonesian practice of group saving in which participants contribute regularly and take turns receiving the pooled funds.

These tools adapt familiar behaviours to digital banking. They can increase transaction frequency and encourage customers to maintain balances for recurring commitments. But differentiated interest incentives also create funding costs, requiring the bank to judge whether stronger engagement offsets the expense.

Building a direct deposit franchise

Current accounts and savings accounts represented 53% of Bank Jago’s deposits at September 2026, or IDR 15.4 trillion (about $850 million). Time deposits accounted for the remainder.

Tan separately estimated that deposits generated through direct digital relationships had risen from approximately 33% at end-2024 to almost 50% at the time of the interview. These are different measures: the CASA ratio describes product types, while the direct-deposit estimate concerns the channel or relationship generating funds.

A growing direct deposit franchise could reduce reliance on partner ecosystems and support lending. Yet digital balances can move quickly in response to interest rates and promotions. The longer-term test is whether customers retain funds because Jago has become useful to their everyday financial management.

Connecting accounts to investments

Bank Jago is positioning its accounts as the banking layer for investment activity through partners such as Bibit and Stockbit. Tan said he did not want to build a comprehensive super app in which the bank operated every investment service itself.

“I don’t want to build a super app,” Tan said.

Instead, specialist partners provide investment services while Jago supports account opening and money movement. Tan said specialised investor bank accounts could be opened in approximately 15 to 20 minutes, compared with processes that sometimes took days elsewhere.

With customer consent, Jago can also display a consolidated view of securities holdings through Indonesia’s depository infrastructure, allowing users to see investments across brokerage relationships without transferring them to the bank.

By September 2026, more than 3.6 million customers were linked to Jago’s investment partners, such as Bibit and Stockbit. These holdings are not Jago deposits. The potential value lies in associated cash flows, more frequent engagement and opportunities to provide complementary banking services.

Extending services beyond rupiah accounts

Tan described foreign-exchange capabilities introduced in 2025 and piloted gold investment services in 2026 (gold investment is currently in a pilot phase and not yet fully publicly available). Multi-currency pockets linked to debit cards allow customers to spend overseas from relevant currency balances. The bank also supports recurring investments through partners.

Tan identified cryptocurrency connectivity as a possible future development, not a service already available. This distinction reflects the bank’s preference to retain the banking and funding relationship while specialist providers handle investment execution, limiting the need to build and regulate every investment activity internally.

The opportunities and risks of direct lending

Jago has expanded credit largely through partners, including digital platforms and financing companies. Tan said it began developing its own cash-loan and overdraft products in late 2024 and expanded activity in 2025.

Direct origination can increase the bank’s share of lending income and deepen relationships, but also increases responsibility for underwriting, collections and losses. Tan described using transaction information, credit bureau records and other permitted data to estimate income and assess repayment capacity, subject to consent and privacy controls.

Jago also offers Rapor Kredit, which allows customers to view information about their credit standing from all OJK-licensed lenders. Tan described a customer reportedly identifying an unfamiliar loan through the information provided, illustrating the potential consumer-protection benefit of greater transparency.

At September 2026, the bank reported a gross non-performing loan ratio of 0.9% and a capital adequacy ratio of 27.5%. These indicators are encouraging, but the relatively young direct-lending portfolio has not yet been tested across a full range of economic conditions.

More transactions, but what revenue?

Tan estimated that fees represented approximately 15% to 16% of operating income and were growing by about 50% year on year at the interview date. These are management estimates rather than audited ratios calculated from published accounts.

He identified QR payments, debit-card spending and transfers as contributors. The increase from approximately 17 to 35 monthly transactions per active user suggests stronger use, but payment volumes do not necessarily translate proportionately into fees. Some services have low margins or are provided primarily to attract deposits and improve retention.

The bank needs to measure both direct transaction income and the indirect contribution of payments to balances, customer loyalty and cross-selling.

Using data to improve customer economics

Tan said Jago was using data to segment customers, test offers and improve marketing effectiveness, including hundreds of campaign experiments. He described models drawing on transaction and other permitted information to better understand customer needs and repayment capacity.

He also discussed using aggregated and anonymised information to assess advertising performance without disclosing identifiable banking information to advertising platforms. These capabilities can reduce acquisition costs and improve relevance, but depend on robust consent, access controls and privacy governance. Trust in the use of financial information is central to the digital relationship.

Turning technology investment into operating leverage

Jago’s technology-led model is designed to grow without a proportionate increase in branches and traditional infrastructure. Tan described the bank’s close working relationship with a strategic technology partner in engineering, product development and data.

He estimated the cost-to-income ratio was in the low 50% range and identified a steady-state ambition of approximately 35% to 40%. The latter is a target, not an achieved outcome.

Meeting it will require income to outpace technology, compliance, cybersecurity, customer support and credit-management costs. Direct lending and broader investment connectivity may improve revenue per customer but also increase operational complexity.

Jago’s progress will ultimately be judged by deposit durability, income per active relationship, credit performance and whether its digital architecture delivers stronger returns as the franchise matures.