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Local banks expand business overseas amid double-digit growth
BRI recorded remittances worth Rp 12.79 trillion (US$909.7 million), up 13.9 percent year-on-year as of May this year
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An official checks bundles of banknotes at a Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) cash center in Jakarta. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
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tate-owned banks have recently been keen on planting more seeds outside Indonesia as lenders want to tap into the growing demand for their lending and remittance growth in their foreign branches.
State-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) plans to set foot in Taiwan by the second half of this year at the latest, making it the first Indonesian bank to open a branch in the country.
BRI president director Suprajarto said that some 250,000 Indonesian migrant workers and 12,000 more monthly arrivals had encouraged the bank to open a branch in the country, as quoted by tempo.com.
“The trade between Taiwan and Indonesia turns out to be extraordinary as well,” Suprajarto, who also aimed to make his bank offices in Hong Kong full-fledged, said recently.
As of May, BRI’s foreign branches had disbursed a total of US$734 million in loans mostly to corporate borrowers. The bank also recorded remittances worth Rp 12.79 trillion ($909.7 million), up 13.9 percent from last year. The lender had aimed for an ambitious loan growth of 74.6 percent by the end of 2019.
Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) also showed a similar performance, as loan growth of the foreign branches as of June this year had reached 30 percent year-on-year (yoy) while their remittance transactions grew 19.8 percent yoy. Currently, the bank has six international bureaus, including in Singapore, London and New York.
While there were no new countries added to the list, BNI treasury and international business director, Rico Rizal Budidarmo, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that his team had focused on improving its performance in Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar by funding exports and other business activities of Indonesian corporations in the three countries.
