Listed lender PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) registered Rp 11
isted lender PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) registered Rp 11.72 trillion (US$1.2 billion) in net profits last year as its lending rose over the industry’s average.
The growth of the bank’s net profits, however, dropped to 8.3 percent from 27 percent in 2011.
“The drop was due to the fact that in 2011 we had an income of Rp 509 billion from reserves of unused facilities. In 2012, we no longer recorded the income because the requirement to set aside reserves for unused facilities had been wiped out,” BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told a press briefing on Wednesday.
He added that the bank’s operational profit rose 14 percent last year compared to a year earlier. The growth was in line with the company’s income growth, of which net interest income rose 17.6 percent and non interest income was up 6.5 percent.
The main driver of the growth in interest income was a 27 percent increase in lending, which reached Rp 202.26 trillion during the year, from a year earlier. The bank’s lending growth was higher than the average lending increase of the banking sector last year at 22 percent.
As much as 33 percent of BCA’s total lending last year was for corporate loans, 40.1 percent for commercial and small and medium enterprises, while the remaining 26.9 percent was in consumer loans.
The highest growth was seen in BCA’s consumer loans, which stood at Rp 68.9 trillion as of the end of 2012, increasing by 37.1 percent compared to consumer loans at the end of 2011.
BCA’s vice president director Eugene Galbraith said that the main support of growth in consumer loans were mortgages and vehicle credits.
“Mortgages rose by 49 percent, the highest compared to other loans in the consumer sector, such as vehicle loans with 18 percent and credit cards with 37 percent,” he said.
Jahja added that BCA concentrated its housing loans on landed houses located in strategic areas.
Despite a strong increase in lending, BCA’s non performing loans was lower at 0.4 percent in 2012 compared to 0.5 percent a year earlier.
The bank expected to see an increase in lending in the range of 18 to 20 percent this year.
“We will continue observing the market as there is likely to be an influence from the increase in minimum wages. However, on the other side, increasing wages will give people higher purchasing power,” Jahja said, adding that despite various difficulties, including increasing wages, companies would remain expansive.
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