Banks Urged to Support Government Programmes, Will Credit Space for SMEs Narrow?

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The banking sector is being urged to channel financing to government priority programmes through regulations related to banks’ business plans (RBB). This is feared to impact overall credit disbursement to SMEs.

Economist and Researcher from the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Indonesia, Yusuf Rendy Manilet, stated that SMEs’ concerns regarding access to financing from banks are reasonable.

“Every bank has limits in bearing risk. If part of that capacity is used for priority programmes, the space for other credits can naturally narrow,” he told Kompas.com on Tuesday (21/4/2026).

“It’s not that banks don’t want to, but they have to manage their risk portfolios,” he added.

Moreover, Yusuf said that the condition of SMEs themselves is not yet fully recovered. So, if added to the burden on new segments, banks will certainly be more selective.

Credit disbursement to priority programmes is not mandatory

Officially, Yusuf said, this programme is indeed not an obligation. There are no targets that banks must meet.

He views this as an encouragement for banks to include financing for priority programmes in their business plans.

“But in practice, we understand that once something is included in regulations and must be reported, it no longer feels like a mere suggestion,” he explained.

From a policy perspective, this encouragement is seen as an effort to direct credit to certain sectors.

“It’s not the old model using quotas, but more subtle. The issue remains whether this will still uphold the principle of banking prudence or not,” Yusuf stated.