Islamic Banks Deemed More Efficient, Limited Number Poses a Challenge

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Chairman of the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) Board of Commissioners, Anggito Abimanyu, stated that Islamic banks are now showing efficiency that can compete with conventional banks, especially in groups of banks with equivalent scales.

“If compared with the same size, Islamic banks are more efficient than conventional general banks,” said Anggito during the Talkshow and Halal Bihalal of the Sharia Economy and Finance Forum Group (FG) PP-ISEI 2026 at BSI Tower in Jakarta on Tuesday (14/4/2026).

He explained that in terms of pricing and services, Islamic banks are nearly on par with conventional banks in the same class. However, the still limited number of Islamic banks becomes an obstacle in reaching customer needs on a broad scale.

“If the number of Islamic banks is only a few, I think it is not sufficient to serve consumers overall,” he said.

Anggito added that currently, there are only a few large-scale Islamic banks. One of them is Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) with assets of around Rp460 trillion, while another Islamic bank, Bank Syariah Nasional (BSN), is still at Rp76 trillion.

In addition, he also touched on the banking liquidity condition which remains quite loose. This is evident from deposit growth that is higher than credit growth.

“Deposit growth above 10 percent, while credit is below 10 percent,” he said.

According to him, this condition shows that financing demand has not fully strengthened. As a result, funds are still held in the banking sector.

He also mentioned that large deposits, especially those above Rp5 billion, are still dominated by corporations.

“There are two. First, their business generates liquidity. Second, the funds have not been absorbed,” said Anggito.