Bank Mandiri to strengthen foothold in Hong Kong

State-owned Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest lender by assets, says that it is aiming to strengthen its business in Hong Kong after its branch in the country showed huge improvement in the first half of this year.

Bank Mandiri's Hong Kong branch booked US$2 billion in remittance volume as of July, an increase of 155 percent compared to the same period last year. The branch recorded more than 20,000 remittance transactions in the period, most of which were submitted by Indonesian workers in Hong Kong, Bank Mandiri said in a press statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday evening.

“We will develop our systems and improve the quality of service in our office [in Hong Kong] to book higher growth for this year, as well as in the coming years,” Bank Mandiri director of risk management, Sentot A. Sentausa, said in the statement.

Out of all the remittances sent to Indonesia from Hong Kong, East Java and Central Java were the top destinations, accounting for 52 percent and 38 percent, respectively, with the remainder distributed to other provinces in Indonesia.

In the first half of this year, the bank's Hong Kong branch enjoyed 170 percent of credit growth, with its non-performing loans (NPL) standing at zero percent.

Bank Mandiri has seven overseas branches: China (Shanghai), the Cayman Islands, England, Hong Kong, Singapore and Timor Leste.

Hong Kong is among the main destinations for Indonesian migrant workers, along with Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. According to the National Agency for Overseas Labor Placement and Protection (BNP2TKI), Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong are the biggest contributors to remittances sent to Indonesia, which topped $400 million from 130,000 workers during the first half of this year. Meanwhile, up to 1.2 million Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and 2.3 million workers in Malaysia contributed $1.7 million and almost $2 million, respectively, to the total remittances. (sat/swd)