Fee-based income boosts BCA revenue
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Publicly listed PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) booked a Rp 1.76 trillion (US$162.36 million) net profit in the first half of the year, or a 16.99 percent increase from the corresponding period last year, boosted by significant growth in fee-based income and outstanding loans.
According to the audited report, released on Monday, the bank's net interest income went up by Rp 3.6 trillion, or 14.36 percent higher from the same period last year.
"Even in the situation where Bank Indonesia's rate increased by almost 1 percent year on year, we were still able to increase our net interest income by 14.36 percent compared to the first semester 2004," the bank's president director Djohan Emir Setijoso announced publicly on Monday.
The bank's net interest margin increased to 5.65 percent from 5.19 percent recorded in the same period last year.
"It was due to the increased earning assets and third party liabilities," he said.
From January to June, the bank's third party liabilities expanded by 4.08 percent, equal to Rp 128.31 trillion, from the same period last year.
Showing increases in all key figures, the highest increase was shown by fee-based income that jumped 35.78 percent to Rp 1.017 trillion.
"The increase showed that people trust us as their leading transaction bank. In fact, our internet and mobile banking transactions have increased sharply and exceeds such transactions in any bank in Singapore," Setijoso said.
"It means, it has becomes more than just a fashion statement that we have mobile banking, but it's really useful for our customers," he added.
Outstanding loans also contributed to the bank's growth as they increased by 30.59 percent compared to the same period last year to Rp 43.71 trillion. This growth contributed almost equally from corporate loans (36.85 percent), loans for small and medium enterprises (45.99 percent) and commercial loans (17.16 percent).
"We were still able to increase our loans because our Capital Adequacy Ratio stands at 25.79 percent, exceeding the central bank's minimum regulation. As a result, we expect our loan growth in the second semester will be more or less the same," he said, adding that he also expected to see the same level of profit growth in the second semester of the year.
Setijoso said in relation to the Indonesian Banking Architecture (API), at present, the bank would position itself to be a strong national bank.
"We have all the preconditions to be an anchor bank, but we have to wait and see whether we will merge or acquire other banks," he said.
BCA vice president director Jahja Setiaatmadja said BCA also planned to open 30 more branches across the country before the end of the year in the bank's business expansion plan.
"So far, we have only opened one more branch while seven more will open in the foreseeable future. However, we're optimistic that the target would be reached before the end of the year," he said. (006)