BI Requests Banks Lower Interest Rates; Amar Bank: Our Customers Need High Deposit Interest

JAKARTA – PT Bank Amar Indonesia Tbk has confirmed it will not reduce interest rates in the near term, particularly deposit interest rates.

This decision responds to Bank Indonesia’s appeal for banks to lower deposit and lending rates as the central bank’s reference rate declines. The BI Rate has fallen 125 basis points throughout 2025.

“I believe we won’t reduce interest rates too quickly,” said Amar Bank Chief Executive Officer Vishal Tulsian during a group interview in Jakarta on Friday, 27 February 2026.

“Our customers are small customers. We want to create a savings habit. Our motto in banking is to save now, spend later,” he explained.

Amar Bank employs a different approach from the consumptionist trend in the digital financial industry. Many services encourage a buy-now-pay-later pattern. Amar Bank opts for a save-now-spend-later principle.

The customer segment is considered to need to develop savings habits for long-term benefit.

“And as a bank, how can we help them? We can only help them in a few ways. By using artificial intelligence to build certain habits and so on, and another way is deposit interest rates. So we continue to offer attractive deposit interest rates,” he said.

“We are not a large company that needs interest rate reductions. Our customer segment needs better deposit interest rates,” he added.