BRI's 2016 Performance Marks 12 Years of Uninterupted Growth
Jakarta. In its latest financial results announced this week, state-controlled lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia shows robust growth in lending and positive net income, securing its place as one of the country's largest lenders.
BRI reported consolidated net income of Rp 26.2 trillion ($2 billion) in the January-December period last year, up 3.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. This figure includes net income from the lender's subsidiaries, namely Islamic lender Bank BRI Syariah, microlender BRI Agroniaga, and money transfer firm BRI Remittance.
BRI's total outstanding loan value grew 14 percent to Rp 663 trillion as of the end of December last year from a year earlier. That beat an estimation by the central bank of 7 percent to 9 percent estimated growth for the country's banking industry as a whole.
"BRI has consistently shown positive growth over the past 12 years," BRI president director Asmawi Syam said in a press conference on Tuesday (31/01).
The lender also announced that the value of its consolidated assets had surpassed Rp 1,000 trillion for the first time in its history. Its total asset value grew 14.3 percent to Rp 1,003.6 trillion in 2016 from a year earlier. That may see BRI close the gap, or even surpass, fellow state-owned Bank Mandiri, the country's largest lender by assets.
Bank Mandiri said last month that the value of its consolidated assets had surpassed the Rp 1,000 trillion mark, but it has yet to announce its full-year financial report. As of the end of September, the total value of Mandiri's assets stood at Rp 975 trillion, only 7.7 percent higher from a year earlier.
BRI reported Rp 754.5 trillion in consolidated third-party funds, consisting of savings, current accounts and term deposits, which represent a 12.8 percent increase from a year earlier.
However, there are concerns that could cast a shadow on BRI's gleaming results.
While the lender's ratio of gross nonperforming loans – or loans that have not been serviced for at least 90 days – increased only slightly to 2.03 percent from 2.02 percent in 2015 at the parent entity, it has increased its loan-loss ratio to 170.3 percent in 2016 from 151.2 percent a year earlier. This may indicate that the management expects future loan losses.
"Our [profit] growth was indeed a single digit but we've increased our loan-loss ratio [...] which means this bank is managed in a profitable, yet prudent manner," BRI vice president director Sunarso said.
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