Jakarta. Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's biggest lender by market capitalization, booked a 10 percent increase in net income to Rp 10.5 trillion ($790.5 million) in the January-June period this year, as the bank managed to maintain steady growth in both net interest income and proceeds from operational activities.

"BCA's efforts to strengthen its transaction banking business and its ability to adapt to the current market conditions resulted in increased funds and quality loan growth," Jahja Setiaatmadja, BCA's president director, said in a statement.

The bank's net interest income, or the income generated from lending money to customers after deducting the costs of paying its depositors, inched up by 3.1 percent to Rp 20.4 trillion in the first half of 2017.

Non-interest income, which consists of transaction fees, commissions and other gains, grew by 10.7 percent to Rp 7.1 trillion in the same period.

Outstanding loans grew by 11.9 percent to Rp 433.3 trillion at the end of June 2017. By comparison, the country's central bank targets 10 percent to 12 percent loan growth this year.

BCA managed to keep its non-performing loans steady "within the set risk appetite limits" at 1.5 percent gross and 0.4 percent net. This is compared to 1.4 percent and 0.4 percent gross and net non-performing loans consecutively in June last year. Both are still lower compared to the 5 percent threshold for a "healthy bank" according to Bank Indonesia regulations.

"BCA continuously strives to strengthen its business foundation for future growth and capitalize on the opportunities that arise across all business lines while adhering to the principles of prudent risk management," Jahja said.

BCA, he said, has had programs to anticipate growth in terms quantity and variety of customers' needs.

According to the BCA's report, its third-party funds — including of savings, current-account and term deposit— amounted to Rp 572.3 trillion , up by 16.7 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The majority of BCA's third-party funds are cheap funds known as current account andsavings cccount deposits, which contributed to 74.6 percent of the funds.

The lender's assets grew 17.9 percent to Rp 738.2 trillion, maintaining its position among the country's top three lenders by assets.