Banks book profits, despite of sluggish credit

JAKARTA. Even though the national economic performance is running slowly, the major banks still can score positive performance. However, Bank Mandiri and Bank Permata experience net interest reduction.

As of September 2016, the profit of Bank Mandiri dropped by 17.6% to IDR12.01 trillion. During the same period, Bank Permata suffered an IDR1.24 trillion of loss, while previously it scored an IDR944 billion of profits. In other words, the profit of Bank Permata has dropped by 231.46%.

Director of Financial and Treasury of Bank Mandiri Pahala Mansury said that the decrease in profit was driven by the increase in allowance for impairment losses to anticipate the non-performing loan growth.
Bank Mandiri will launch some strategies to boost the profit, “Including by increase the incomes from fee based income”, Pahala said.

As the result of the decrease in profit, the predicate of Bank Mandiri as the bank with the second largest profit has been taken over by Bank Central Asia (BCA), which booked an IDR3 trillion more of profits.

CIMB Niaga also upgrades its position from the bank with tenth to eight largest profit by securing a 432.77% increase in net profit to IDR1.26 trillion.

The increase was driven by the non-interest income that increased by 29%, as well as the decrease in reserves funds by 4.9%. “We continue to prioritize the selected assets, as well as strengthen digital networks,” said President Director of CIMB Niaga Tigor M. Siahaan.

Meanwhile, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is still the bank with the highest profit, even though the profit only slightly increased by 1,84%.

The banks managements have to be creative in finding alternatives to support their performances, amid the sluggish demand on credits. As of August 2016, credit only grew by 6.65% to IDR4,177.31 trillion.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)