Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has said the government is mulling merging several state-owned Islamic banks – banks that offer services that are sharia-compliant – to unify their power and boost their global rating.

The state-owned Islamic banks in talks to be merged are PT Bank BRI Syariah, a subsidiary of Bank BRI, PT Bank Syariah Mandiri, a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri, and PT Bank BNI Syariah, a subsidiary of Bank BNI.

The Vice President, who previously chaired the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), expressed hope the merger would also boost the national economy and speed up the economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[The banks] have been in talks to strengthen [Islamic banks] because we don't have a large Islamic bank that ranks in the top 20 internationally," Ma'ruf said Thursday during a discussion hosted by news publication Media Indonesia.

"We are also doing this so that we don't have too many banks with small potentials," he continued, expressing hope that a sizeable Islamic bank could also support the country's domestic and foreign interest.

Read also: Indonesia’s global bonds spike in popularity amid uncertainty: Mandiri Sekuritas

Popular

Mass poisonings cast doubt on free meals reforms

New data rules could unlock cross-border data flows

Malaysia must not breathe Indonesia’s governance failure