West Java's Bank BJB grows lending by 21.5% to $3.13 B

Bank BJB’s lending grew by 21.52 percent last year to Rp 28.76 trillion or US$3.13 billion.

The regional development bank of West Java, Bank Jabar Banten or or Bank BJB aims to increase lending by 22 to 25 percent this year through various sources of credit.

The West Java-focused lender also booked Rp 962.7 billion in net profits in 2011, up 8.14 percent from 2010.

“Our net profit did not increase much because our operating expenses surged 41 percent due to branch expansion, promotional activities and new employee hire,” corporate secretary Adang Ahmad Kunandar told The Jakarta Post.

Income recorded under “other operating income”, which includes fee-based income derived from various client services, dropped 21.62 percent to Rp 240.17 billion, offsetting the increase in Bank BJB’s core business — lending.

Net interest and sharia income, which reflects revenues generated from interest on assets minus the cost of servicing liabilities, jumped 15.43 percent to Rp 30.61 trillion.

Bank BJB president director Bien Subiantoro said lending could have grown faster if the bank had not written off its bad loans. “There were missing figures because we wanted to write off NPL.”

ad loans remained manageable at 1.21 percent, well below banking regulator Bank Indonesia’s (BI) 3 percent threshold. “We want to maintain NPL at below 2 percent,” Bien said.

Bank BJB would retain its focus on consumer and micro-loans, but commercial and corporate financing would remain robust to balance the lender’s credit portfolio, Bien said.

“But that’s only to balance our credit portfolio. The main focus remains on civil servants with fixed incomes. The second focus is on micro-lending,” Bien told reporters on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

Bank BJB has set aside about Rp 50 billion to acquire 10 rural banks in the West Java area in an attempt to further boost its micro-lending business in the region.

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