The publicly listed bank is optimistic about maintaining loan growth at around 13 percent and 14 percent toward the end of 2017. In the first nine months of 2017, its outstanding loans increased 13.3 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 421.41 trillion (US$ 31.18 billion).

The growth target was lower than its initial projection of 15 to 17 percent, however it was still far above loan growth in the industry at 8.2 percent as of July.

“We are optimistic about maintaining our loan growth for the next few quarters because we have been disbursing loans for infrastructure projects for the last three years. Infrastructure projects are developed gradually, therefore the loans from us will be fully disbursed by 2019,” BNI vice president director Herry Sidharta said on Thursday.

To accelerate loan funneling to the corporate sector, the management’s strategy will focus on financing government infrastructure projects and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as focusing on low-risk sectors such as agriculture and farming.

BNI sees big potential to disburse loans to business banking, which accounted for 78.3 percent of the lender’s total credit portfolio, equal to Rp 329.75 trillion. The lender has channeled the largest loans to the corporate sector, accounting for 23.6 percent of total credit, followed by SOE loans (19.4 percent), medium sector (16.1 percent) and small sector (12.8 percent).

The publicly listed bank will also optimize its loan disbursement to the medium segment by exploring the potential of corporate borrowers. Meanwhile, in consumer banking, BNI has channeled Rp 68.53 trillion in loans, an increase of 9.2 percent from the same period in 2016.

In the first nine months of the year, BNI’s net profit soared 31.6 percent to Rp 10.16 trillion, as its net interest income climbed 7.5 percent to Rp 23.51 trillion, while non-interest income jumped 15.1 percent to Rp 7.18 trillion in the third quarter.

“We will maintain our net profit growth of about 30 percent toward year-end,” BNI finance director Rico Budidarmo said.

BNI saw its gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio drop to 2.8 percent in the first nine months from 3.1 percent yoy. The net NPL ratio, however, increased to 0.8 percent from 0.7 percent yoy.

NPL shows the ratio of bad loans — whether they are in default or close to being in default — to total outstanding loans. BNI expects to reduce its NPL ratio to 2.5 to 2.6 percent by the end of the year to improve its loan liquidity through credit restructuring.

BNI has prepared for next year funds for capital injection into its subsidiary, the sharia-based BNI Syariah, totaling Rp 1 trillion to support the latter’s inorganic growth. Until June 2017, BNI Syariah’s total assets amounted to Rp 30.74 trillion, a 19.75 percent increase on an annual basis.

BNI Syariah has core capital of Rp 2.6 trillion, thus listed in the BUKU II group — only one level above the lowest group of banks in terms of capital capacity. Those operating with lowest permitted core capital, at below Rp 1 trillion, are classified as BUKU I banks.

Apart from injecting capital into its subsidiary, BNI also plans to develop its asset management business. “The funds slated for acquisition of the asset management company is about Rp 300 billion to Rp 500 billion,” Rico said.

BNI has five subsidiaries, comprising BNI Life Insurance, BNI Multifinance, BNI Sekuritas, BNI Remittance and BNI Syariah.

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