Publicly listed Bank Central Asia (BCA), the nation's second largest lender by assets, booked a 19 percent rise in the first nine months of the year from a year earlier as both interest-based and fee-based revenues rose.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, the bank said its net profit in the January-September period stood at Rp 4 trillion (around US$362 million), from Rp 3.36 trillion in the same period last year.
"In the uncertain environment, BCA continues to implement prudent lending activities and maintains a comfortable liquidity position," said president director D.E. Setijoso.
The global credit crunch is drying up liquidity across the globe and banking activities in Indonesia would eventually be impacted.
BCA vice president Jahya Setiaatmadja said the sector would be more careful and selective in lending activities to ensure prudent banking practice and to avoid loans becoming non-performing.
"We will evaluate and restrain plans to provide loans to big companies. In the future, banking liquidity will be more strictly controlled, so we will see how things develop," he said.
Still, the bank expects loans to increase by between Rp 4 trillion and Rp 7 trillion until the end of the year.
Returning to the bank's performance, a whooping 53.3 percent growth in lending during the nine months period pushed up net interest-based revenue by 20.6 percent to Rp 8.6 trillion, complementing a 25.6 percent rise in fee-based revenue to Rp 2.6 trillion.
As of the end of September, the bank disbursed Rp 105.5 trillion in loans, with third party funds rising 14 percent to Rp 192.9 trillion -- bringing the bank's loan-to-deposit (LDR) ratio up to 54.7 percent, still below the national average of 70 percent.
Corporate lending grew by 74.9 percent from a year earlier to Rp 46.1 trillion, while commercial and SME loans rose by 32.9 percent to Rp 39.7 trillion.
Consumer lending also recorded a significant growth of 55.2 percent to Rp 19.8 trillion, thanks in particular to strong growth in vehicle loans and the mortgage portfolio.
The bank also posted a fairly low rate of 0.6 percent in gross non performing loans (NPLs), a decline from 1.1 percent in the same period last year.
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) -- a bank's capital as compared to its risk-weighted assets, including loans -- stood at 16 percent, lower than the 20.7 percent booked in the previous equivalent period, but still way above the central bank's minimum requirement of 8 percent.
