State-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is optimistic it will meet its target for loan disbursement this year as it has seen higher demand for loans following the introduction of a government-backed micro loan program.
BRI president director Asmawi Syam said Wednesday that the bank had booked 14.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) loan growth in February, above the industry’s average of 9.5 percent yoy a month earlier.
The relatively high loan growth, he said, is expected to help the bank increase its credit by up to 15 percent by year-end, as targeted in a business plan submitted to the Financial Services Authority (OJK).
“We have managed to increase our loans above industry average. We are hoping that the growth level will increase by the end of March,” he said in a press conference after the closing of the bank’s annual general shareholders meeting.
According to its financial report, BRI saw loan disbursement up by 13.9 percent yoy to Rp 558.4 trillion (US$42.3 billion) last year. The growth band was higher than the industry average of 10 percent last year.
BRI finance director Haru Koesmahargyo said the achievement had been mainly driven by increasing demand for the government-backed micro loan program, or KUR.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration is aiming to see domestic financial institutions channel a total of Rp 100 trillion in loans this year. BRI, the country’s largest micro-loan provider, is expected to channel Rp 67.5 trillion.
The government said the target, which is far higher than the Rp 31 trillion targeted last year, was feasible, as the KUR lending rate had been cut from 12 percent to 9 percent last year.
Asmawi said BRI had disbursed a total Rp 20.7 trillion in loans as of March 21, more than 20 percent of the bank’s total target this year and higher than the average 16 percent it disbursed in the same period last year.
He said the bank had been able to boost its KUR disbursement as a result of new technology called a
loan approval system (LAS) and additional marketing agents, including by offering incentives to those who were willing to work on weekends.
“We also employ young people who work in traditional markets to market our KUR program and push our branchless banking agents as referral for credit applications,” he said.
Wednesday’s shareholders meeting also approved a dividend payout ratio of 30 percent, or equal to Rp 7.6 trillion, from the bank’s 2015 net profit of Rp 25.2 trillion. The remaining net profit, meanwhile, will be kept as retained profits and used to finance the bank’s corporate social responsibility programs.
Shareholders, meanwhile, approved the use of treasury stock for Management and Employee Stock Options (MESOP), the bank having bought back 221.7 million shares between October last year and January, as regulated by the OJK.
The meeting also appointed Mahmud as a bank commissioner and Priyastomo and Sis Apik Wijayanto as directors, replacing A. Toni Soetirto and Gatot Mardiwasisto who ended their terms. Randi Anto, meanwhile, retained his position as a member of the board of directors.
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