Panin posts healthy profit

JAKARTA: Bank Panin said on Thursday that its operating profit in the first nine months of the year was Rp 1.13 trillion (US$133.73 million), with a net profit of Rp 303 billion.

The bank, in a statement, said the strong profit was derived from net interest profit amounting to Rp 835 billion and fee- based income of Rp 565 billion.

It did not provide comparative figure for the same period last year, but operating profit for the full-year 2002 was Rp 1.32 trillion.

"The fee-based income was mainly from commercial paper transactions and commissions," the bank said.

For the first nine months, the bank disbursed new loans totaling Rp 2.1 trillion. Of that figure, Rp 1.26 trillion was consumer credit while the rest was financing for the commercial sector, retail and small to medium-scale enterprises.

As of Sept. 30, the bank's total assets valued Rp 17.3 trillion with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 47.3 percent, up from last year's 32 percent.

In addition, the bank managed to increase net interest margin (NIM) to 7.33 percent compared to 5.26 percent in 2002 mainly because of lower average interest rate. -- JP