S

tate-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) booked higher net profits during the first nine months of this year on the back of growing loans, it announced in Jakarta on Wednesday.

BRI, which specializes in micro and retail lending, saw its net profits surge 17 percent year-on-year to
Rp 15.23 trillion (US$1.35 billion) in the third quarter. The rise was supported by increases in both its net interest income and fee-based income.

However, the increase of the bank'€™s net profits was less than the near 25 percent in the same period last year.

The bank said that its net interest margin (NIM) ratio fell to 8.2 percent from 8.4 percent reported in last year'€™s third quarter. BRI president director Sofyan Basir said the lower NIM ratio was part of the bank'€™s strategy to compete with other lenders, having only recently entered the micro segment.

Its latest financial report shows that BRI'€™s net interest income rose 16.6 percent to Rp 30.3 trillion, while its loans grew 30 percent to Rp 413.27 trillion.

Sofyan said the publicly listed lender managed to boost all its credit segments despite the slowdown in the domestic economy. The highest increase was recorded in its lending to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which jumped 46.6 percent to Rp 66.55 trillion.

However, retail and micro remained its two biggest lending segments, which made up for 38.9 percent and 31.8 percent, respectively, of the total lending portfolio. The rest of the portfolio received contributions from SOEs with 14.3 percent, corporate with 10.3 percent and middle-scale business with 4.7 percent.

Djarot Kusumayakti, BRI'€™s director for micro, small and medium enterprises, said the lender had a total 6.1 million customers in its micro loan segment, 2.55 million of whom were registered under the government'€™s micro credit support program (KUR).

With regard to its fee-based income, BRI reported that the figure had risen 22.2 percent to Rp 3.41 trillion, thanks to a higher number of electronic transactions. Electronic banking fees jumped 63.4 percent to Rp 443 million from January to September.

The financial report shows that all BRI'€™s electronic transactions posted growth in the third quarter, from automatic teller machine (ATM) to mobile-banking transactions. As of September, BRI had 18.5 million ATM users, 5.1 million mobile banking users and 820,000 Internet banking users.

Meanwhile, in terms of third-party funds (DPK), the bank reported a 21.9 percent increase to Rp 453.73 trillion. About 42.3 percent of its DPK was recorded in time deposits, 41 percent in savings and 16.7 percent in demand deposits.

BRI finance director Achmad Baiquni said the bank was optimistic it could meet its net profit target for this year of Rp 20 trillion. '€œWe have calculated how much the latest interest-rate hike will affect our business. So far, everything is in line,'€ he said.

In a move similar to that of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), another state-owned bank that has also announced its third quarter results, BRI has set its 2014 business target at a moderate level. Business is predicted to grow at a range of 18 percent to 22 percent, lower than the average growth recorded in the industry, which is around 22 percent to 24 percent.

BRI'€™s total assets amounted to Rp 569.15 trillion as of September this year. Its shares, traded under the code '€œBBRI'€, closed at Rp 8,150 on Wednesday, up 1.2 percent from the day before.