Bank Jakarta Prioritises Quality Growth Amid Rising Cost of Funds

Bank Jakarta is adopting a strategy of healthy and quality growth amid increasing cost of funds and a challenging financial industry dynamic. The company is holding back on aggressive expansion and being more selective in developing its business. Bank Jakarta President Director Agus H Widodo said the company will not pursue high growth in a market full of uncertainty. The focus is directed towards asset quality and business sustainability. “We are not chasing massive growth, but rather pursuing healthy and quality growth,” Agus said at the Investor Day 2026 event at the Indonesia Stock Exchange building in Jakarta on Tuesday (30/6/2026). According to Agus, the banking industry is currently facing new challenges, particularly the rising cost of funds which could pressure performance. He noted that deposit interest rates in fund auctions had reached 11.5 percent, an indicator of increasing pressure on funding costs. “This is a warning for the banking sector. It means the cost of funds will rise significantly going forward,” he said. Despite these pressures, Bank Jakarta is preparing strategies to maintain business growth while preserving portfolio quality. One of the steps being taken is the diversification of funding sources, including optimising low-cost funds from the DKI Jakarta provincial government ecosystem. Agus assessed that the national banking industry’s fundamentals remain strong, reflected by positive credit growth, high capital levels, maintained liquidity, and controlled non-performing loan ratios. “The issue is not with the fundamentals, but that the playing field has changed,” he stated. He added that the financial industry has faced various external factors in recent years, from the pandemic to geopolitical conflicts and shifts in global trade policies. To answer these changes, Bank Jakarta is carrying out a transformation across all lines, from business strengthening and risk management to digitalisation. Agus noted that customer behaviour has also shifted, with people now prioritising ease, speed, security, and the ecosystem of services offered. “People no longer just look at the product, but at how easy, cheap, fast, and secure the service is, or even the ecosystem offered by the bank itself,” he said.