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T Bank Internasional Indonesia (BNII), one of the nation’s top 10 banks controlled by Malaysia’s Maybank, reaped Rp 592 billion (US$62.75 million) in profits in the first six months of this year, up 61 percent from the same period a year ago due to strong growth in income from loan interest during what the bank called the “best semester” since 1997.

Though lending grew slightly below the overall banking industry’s average at 24 percent to Rp 73.5 trillion in outstanding loans as of June, net interest income (NII) soared on increasing net interest margin (NIM), which is the difference between lending rate and deposit rate, the bank, more commonly known as BII, announced.

BII’s NII rose 32 percent to Rp 2.6 trillion in the January-June period this year from a year earlier, as NIM increased to 5.89 percent from 5.43 percent the previous year.

“The improved performance was mainly supported by solid growth across the bank’s core businesses, improved asset quality, and its continuing overall operational improvements,” BII said.

Global wholesale banking loans accounted for 38 percent of total loans, while small and medium enterprise (SME) and consumer loans contributed 25 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

Gross non-performing loans (NPL), which is a bank’s ratio of bad loans, dropped to 2.11 percent as of the end of June versus 2.45 percent in the same month last year, well below the central bank’s 5 percent threshold.

BII’s total assets grew 21 percent, surpassing Rp 100 trillion for the first time to Rp 102 trillion.

“The improved performance demonstrates that our long journey and efforts in regaining our growth momentum have now started to bear fruit,” BII’s president director Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli said in the statement.

“I am confident that our sustainable growth plan across all business segments will further improve our performance as we continue to capture higher market share while ensuring good asset quality,” he added.

Capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which measures a bank’s capital strength, remained “healthy” at 12.56 percent, enough to expand its lending business as it was well above the central bank’s minimum requirement of 8 percent. Commercial banks in Indonesia had an average CAR of about 17 percent.

BII also had Rp 76.6 trillion in customers’ deposits as of the end of June this year, up 16 percent from the same period last year, and boosting a loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) up to 95.39 percent compared with 89.95 percent in the previous year.

To meet customers’ demand, BII added 24 new branches and 66 ATMs in the first half of this year, making a total of 375 offices and 1,218 ATMs throughout the archipelago. The increase in overhead costs was managed at 12 percent to Rp 2.4 trillion in June this year from a year earlier.

Shares in BII traded at Rp 415 on Friday, up 3.75 percent from the previous day.