Rival Indonesian banks BRI, BNI target 22% lending growth

Strong demand by consumers and corporations.

This caused Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Negara Indonesia to forecast their lending to grow by more than 20 percent next year.

BRI envisions lending to expand by 22 percent to 23 percent.

Achmad Baiquni, BRI finance director, said loans for working capital might slow down and loans for consumption will be crippled by tighter rules imposed by the central bank.

One such rule was to increase the down payment on purchases of cars and houses.

Achmad noted that only 30 percent of the 45 million of micro business have access to banks loan.

BRI disbursed Rp 85 trillion or US$8.9 billion in loans to finance micro businesses in the country, covering around 3.9 million borrowers in the first nine months.

BRI will also focus its lending on financing of government infrastructure projects next year. It plans to sell $500 million of dollar-denominated bonds next year, with its proceeds used to finance lending.

Bank Negara Indonesia targets a similar loan growth of 22 percent to 23 percent next year.

Total outstanding loans at BNI grew 15 percent to Rp 185 trillion, in the first nine months of this year.

Yap Tjai Soen, BNI finance director, said that the lender would continue to disburse loans for corporations and and to the infrastructure sector.

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