BNI loan growth 17.5%

State-owned lender Bank BNI reported loan growth higher than the industry average last year despite a contracting economy.

The publicly listed bank saw its outstanding loans expand by 17.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 326.11 trillion (US$23.53 billion) as of December from Rp 277.62 trillion in 2014.

The growth is higher than Bank Indonesia’s (BI) industry projection of 11 to 13 percent yoy for the full year. The central bank recorded loan growth realization of 9.8 percent yoy as of November.

“We’re glad that BNI could outperform the industry amid the challenging economic situation,” BNI finance and business risk director Rico Rizal Budidarmo told a press briefing in Central Jakarta on Monday.

According to Bank BNI data, loans for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) booked the highest growth of 31 percent yoy to Rp 93.23 trillion. This was 28.6 percent of the total loans. Loans for the corporate sector came second, followed by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) loans, with 24.6 percent and 17.7 percent growth, respectively.

The business banking sector contributed 70.9 percent to the lender’s total outstanding loans while the remainder comprised consumer loans (17.6 percent), overseas loans (6 percent) and subsidiaries (5.5 percent).

However, the lender also saw its net non-performing loan (NPL) rate rise to 0.9 percent from 0.4 percent in 2014, contributed fairly evenly by corporate and consumer loans.

Bank BNI president director Achmad Baiquni said the rising NPL, loan expansion and higher loan-loss provision (CKPN) eroded the lender’s net profits by 15.9 percent yoy to Rp 9.07 trillion.

“We will increase the provision to as much as those of our peers, which is around 150 percent of coverage ratio, this year,” he said.

Last year, BNI increased its CKPN to Rp 11.68 trillion from Rp 6.4 trillion in the third quarter. The coverage ratio stood at 140.4 percent as of December, Bank BNI data show.

Baiquni expressed optimism that Bank BNI could book double-digit growth in net profits this year as it saw growing net interest income (NII) last year, which demonstrated the lender’s good operational performance.

Bank BNI’s NII climbed 12.3 percent yoy to Rp 25.6 trillion while its net interest margin was slightly up, to 6.4 percent from 6.3 percent in 2014. Its third-party funds also jumped 18 percent yoy to Rp 370.4 trillion. “This year’s economy will be better than last year,” Baiquni said, “Thus, we will focus on loan expansion.”

He added that the lender would also cut its lending interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) in February following BI’s decision to lower its benchmark interest rate.

Bank BNI targeted a loan growth of between 16 percent and 18 percent this year, supported by the same growth in its third-party funds and issuance of bonds and negotiable certificates of deposit worth around Rp 4 trillion. “We are currently assessing the issuances as we need to choose the right time to get the best prices,” he said.

Bank BNI treasury and international director Panji Irawan said the negotiable certificates of deposit were in the Financial Services Authority (OJK) pipeline while the bonds issuance was being assessed by the lender.

“These are part of our strategy to secure liquidity,” he said. (Prima Wirayani)

Sumber : kontan.co.id