BRI targets 25% increase in lending

BRI targets 25% increase in lending

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has set it sights on a 25 percent
increase in its new lending exposure this year, while allocating
about 90 percent of that to small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs).

BRI president director Rudjito said on Tuesday that the bank
hoped to extend Rp 15 trillion (US$1.64 billion) in new loans
this year as compared to Rp 12 trillion last year.

"We expect to channel about 90 percent of this year's new
loans to SMEs," said Rudjito before the launching of a book on
BRI Keluar Dari Krisis (BRI Exits from the Crisis) by State
Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto in Jakarta.

BRI says in the report that its total amount of outstanding
loans increased from Rp 47.51 trillion as of the end of 2003 to
Rp 58.1 trillion as of last September. Of the total, more than 85
percent were channeled to SMEs.

Most of the other financial indicators of the bank, such as
non-performing loans (NPL) and loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), are
just as encouraging.

With savings and deposits generated from third parties
slightly increasing from Rp 76.3 trillion as of the end of 2003
to Rp 78.57 trillion as of last September, the bank's LDR
substantially increased from 62.3 percent to 73.95 percent,
respectively.

BRI's director of credit, Gayatri Rawit Angreni said the
bank's NPL decreased from 6.03 percent as of December 2003 to
5.75 percent as of September 2004. And its capital adequacy ratio
(CAR) declined from 20.87 percent to 19.65 percent during the
same period, but was still way above Bank Indonesia's minimum
requirement of 8 percent.

Director General of Financial Institutions at the ministry of
finance Darmin Nasution was impressed with BRI's performance,
having learned that the bank's CAR dropped to "negative 118.4
percent" following the rupiah's sharp decline during the height
of the economic crisis. (004)