OCBC, Astra Life, BTN, and ACA prioritise utility and relevance over super app ambitions.

OCBC, Astra Life, BTN, and ACA prioritise inferior and relevance complete ace app ambitions.

Banks and insurers successful Southeast Asia are going backmost to basics by designing apps that attraction connected what customers really need—fast claims, unafraid systems, and adjuvant tools—instead of trying to go ace apps.

At nan Asian Banking & Finance-Insurance Asia Summit 2025 successful Jakarta successful June, executives from PT Bank OCBC NISP Tbk (OCBC Indonesia), Astra Life, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), and PT Asuransi Central Asia (ACA) noted really their app improvement priorities are shifting from characteristic overload to functional relevance.

“We’re not trying to outbuild our competitors,” Windy Riswantyo, group caput astatine Astra Life, told nan summit. “We build to service our customers.”

Their My Astra Life app, launched successful 2021, puts claims astatine nan centre of nan personification experience. Features for illustration e-claims, e-cards thief users negociate health, investment, and pension benefits successful 1 place.

“The highest usage comes from claim-related services. That’s wherever nan worth lies,” she pointed out.

At ACA, integer channels relationship for only astir 1% of revenue, Chief Financial Officer Indrawati Darmawan told nan summit. But that hasn’t stopped nan Indonesian insurer from investing successful mobile devices that fto users position policies and process claims much easily.

“We’re building for Gen Z,” she said. “Even if they’re not buying today, we don’t want to commencement from zero erstwhile they are [ready].”

BTN is taking a different approach—embedding itself successful customers’ regular routines. “We want to beryllium portion of users’ routines from early on,” said Tresia Sarumpaet, caput of integer unit astatine BTN.

To do this, nan lender’s app offers much than conscionable banking. It includes QRIS cross-border payments, hose and train bookings, location repair services, and moreover entree to therapists.

“It’s much than banking. It’s a regular hub,” Sarumpaet said.

At OCBC Indonesia, nan attraction is connected building a beardown back-end instauration to support unafraid and personalised experiences.

“Don’t jump consecutive to artificial intelligence (AI),” said Phillip Thomas, caput of analytics and decision-making astatine nan bank. “You person to first build nan foundation—structure nan data, cleanable it, analyse it. Only past tin AI create value.”

OCBC spends 80% of its app improvement clip connected infrastructure, including fraud discovery and anti-money laundering systems. “Security isn’t a feature—it’s hygiene,” he added.

The bank’s Life Goals instrumentality helps users representation retired financial objectives and person personalised merchandise recommendations, while behavioural information softly powers tailored nudges successful nan background. “It’s not astir trading products. It’s astir enabling amended decisions,” Phillip said.

Still, each 4 financial institutions work together that not each work needs to beryllium successful an app. Astra Life erstwhile considered building a pension declare function, but dropped nan thought aft realising that older users mightiness only instal it once.

“Just because thing tin beryllium built doesn’t mean it should [be built],” Riswantyo said.

This displacement reflects a much mature integer mindset. “We’ve seen companies walk recklessly trying to bargain relevance,” Phillip noted. “But relevance comes from reliability. If your app useful each clip and meets existent needs, customers will stay.”

For ACA, nan extremity is long-term. “We’re not present to monetise app downloads,” Indrawati said. “We’re investing to guarantee we enactment applicable erstwhile digital-first users return over.”

Ultimately, occurrence successful nan crowded app marketplace nary longer depends connected having nan flashiest features—it depends connected becoming indispensable.

“You don’t make money pinch a bully UI (user interface),” Phillip said. “You make money by knowing your customers. Everything other is conscionable packaging.”

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