State-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) says it is looking to grow its business banking and consumer banking segments in an attempt to expand its lending portfolio in 2014.

According to BNI president director Gatot M. Suwondo, BNI aims to reach 14 to 17 percent loans growth this year. This means that its outstanding loans are estimated to rise to at least Rp 285.73 trillion (US$24.11 billion) by year-end.

'€œOur total lending growth is in line with what the banking industry expects to book this year. However, we have decided to set our business banking segment target a little bit higher, at around 15 to 18 percent, to help us secure the growth,'€ he said on Wednesday.

With the 15 to 18 percent growth range, BNI hopes its business banking '€” composed of corporate, medium, small and international loans '€” will surge to between Rp 216.88 trillion and Rp 222.54 trillion.

BNI business banking director Krishna R. Suparto said the bank '€” the fourth-biggest lender by assets as of now '€” said it would look for more syndicated loans opportunities to reach the target.

Krishna said it already had Rp 2 trillion-worth of syndicated loans in the pipeline.

'€œThe loans will be used to finance infrastructure, transportation and construction projects, which
will be carried out by both private firms and state-owned enterprises,'€ he said.

BNI is holding talks with other lenders and expects to seal some of the deals in the first quarter. Last year, Krishna added, BNI managed around Rp 9 trillion in syndicated loans, Rp 5 trillion of which was disbursed by BNI.

In consumer banking, the publicly listed BNI set the growth target at 14 to 16 percent.

If the target is achieved, the consumer loans will surge to about Rp 54.19 trillion to Rp 55.14 trillion. Mortgages are estimated to continue dominating consumer loans by more than 60 percent, followed by automotive loans.

Meanwhile, in customer deposits, BNI expects the amount of deposits will rise to a minimum of Rp 329.83 trillion this year, 13 percent higher than in 2013.

According to Gatot, BNI will seek to maintain the low-cost funds ratio at 69 to 70 percent of the total deposits in an effort to generate cheap funds. '€œWe plan on adding 3,000 new ATMs and strengthening our electronic banking system to support low-cost fund growth this year,'€ he said.

By December 2013, its low-cost funds - consisting of savings and current account '€” made up Rp 201.4 trillion, equal to 69 percent of the deposits.

BNI recently published its 2013 financial report, which shows a 28.5 percent year-on-year increase to
Rp 9.05 trillion in its bottom line.

Supported by the result, BNI became the only state bank that posted higher net profits growth rate in 2013, while other state lenders - Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) '€” reported a slowdown in their profit growth.

Following the financial result announcement, BNI'€™s shares '€” offered under the '€œBBNI'€ code '€” closed at Rp 4,470 apiece on Wednesday, climbing 0.4 percent from a day before.