Loan repayment rate up slightly

Loan repayment rate up slightly

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia (the central bank) said yesterday that the collectibility rate of loans at state banks slightly increased to 81.37 percent as of last December from 80.55 percent as of last September, but was still well below an average of 87.94 percent at commercial banks in general.

The central bank's governor, J. Soedradjad Djiwandono, also said at a hearing with the Trade and Finance Commission of the House of Representatives early this week that bad loans at the country's seven state banks reached Rp 6.1 trillion ($2.77 billion) as of last January.

Bank Indonesia said in a statement yesterday that a number of doubtful loans at the commercial banks have shifted to the category of bad loans.

"To get more accurate data, we have conducted repeat on-site examinations of commercial banks, especially state-owned banks... After a correction of previous data, the figure of bad loans increased, especially at Bapindo," the central bank said.

Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) has been ridden with hefty bad loans since its US$450 million loan to Eddy Tansil's Golden Key Group went sour last year. Its loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars to giant textile company PT Kanindo Success Textile also got them into trouble last year.

The seven state banks control almost half of the country's total lending market. The central bank's latest weekly report, dated Feb. 15, shows that commercial banks' credits stood at Rp 187.61 trillion as of last December. (rid)