The lender, which operates in some of the country’s least-developed regions, said that poor infrastructure in its location basis challenged it to partake in more transportation and telecommunication development projects.

Bank Maluku Malut marketing director Aleta da Costa said on Tuesday the plan would be in line with the bank’s plan to balance what it called strategic lending proportion.

The bank currently relies on consumer credits, which make up 80 percent of its lending target, while the remaining minority is channeled into other loan categories.

“We want to adjust the ratio to 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively, by the end of this year or by the second quarter of 2018 at the latest,” Aleta told the press on the sidelines of a conference.

She acknowledged that changing the bank’s credit target ratio was not an easy task as nearly all of the infrastructure projects there were handled by the central government, leaving it little room to participate.

“We understand that underdeveloped regions like ours are in dire need of infrastructure and therefore, we consider its funding our foremost challenge,” Aleta said.

Aleta also revealed that the bank was currently after several infrastructure projects in Maluku and North Maluku, but declined to disclose details as it had not yet acquired the rights to finance them.

Apart from infrastructure projects in both provinces, Bank Malulu Malut also funded several similar projects, including the Cipali toll road in West Java and the Pemalang-Batang toll road in Central Java.

Furthermore, Aleta said, it aimed for an 11.5 percent increase in its lending this year to Rp 3.8 trillion (US$281.1 million). As of November, it had already inched near the target, disbursing Rp 3.7 trillion.

“As mandated by Bank Indonesia, we also aim to increase our microlending category to 10 percent by the end of the year from 9 percent at this moment,” she added.

To finance its future plans, Bank Malulu Malut will issue bonds to raise Rp 500 billion in December.

The fresh funds from the issuance of the debt paper, which is the second part of its continuous bonds first sold in January, will be used to finance its consumer and multipurpose credits.

The bonds are divided into three different tenors of 370 days, three years and five years with coupons ranging from 7.5 percent to 9.65 percent.

The lender appointed government-affiliated investment firms Danareksa Sekuritas and Mandiri Sekuritas as the underwriters.

“We hope the bonds can attract domestic investors in consideration of their overall value,” Danareksa director Boumediene Sihombing said on the same occasion.

Bank Maluku Malut was established in 1961 to accelerate the development of the then-Maluku province.

After the province was divided into two provinces, Maluku and North Maluku, in 1999, the lender continued to hold its operational basis in both regions.

As of 2016, the bank recorded Rp 5.6 trillion in assets. It booked Rp 735 billion in revenue last year, down slightly by 1.7 percent from what it posted in 2015.

Its annual net profit, meanwhile, also declined mildly by 3.13 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 140.6 billion in the past year.

Bank Maluku Malut president director Arief Burhanudin said in order to reach greater number of customers, the lender had also conducted a series of IT developments to cover remote areas, such as online tax payment and online Vehicle Document Registration Center (Samsat) payment.

Popular

Indonesia slams 'unacceptable' peacekeeper casualties in Lebanon

Pakistan announces free public transport as energy crisis bites

Wikimedia restriction sparks digital rights, free knowledge concerns