BCA Records Profit of Rp9.6 Trillion

PT Bank Central Asia Tbk. (BCA) made a net profit of Rp9.6 trillion in the first semester of this year, reflecting a growth of 12.1 percent year-on-year, mostly from interest income following the bright growth of corporate credits.

BCA President Director Jahja Setiaatmadja said here on Wednesday (20/7/2016) that although domestic economic condition was still in the process of recovering, corporate credits had contributed the highest to the growth reaching 19.6 percent year-on-year or Rp135.4 trillion.

Commercial and small and medium credits on the other hand have been the biggest portfolio but their growth was only recorded at 6.5 percent or Rp146.5 trillion while consumer credits were up 9.1 percent year-on-year, reaching Rp105.2 trillion.

"We indeed saw that demand is still slow, but thanks to our efficiency and growth of transaction accounts, the business has registered a boost," he added.

In the consumer line, housing credits rose by 8.5 percent to Rp61.7 trillion and motor-vehicle credits were up 11.4 percent to reach Rp34.0 trillion. The BCA credits in all segments grew 11.5 percent to Rp387 trillion, year-on-year.

According to Jahja, the efficiency attained through reduction of cost of funds has contributed to the growth of profit and revenues.

"Before the monetary easing effected by Bank Indonesia since 2015, we have been able to lower the interest rates of deposits and, in turn, reduce the cost of funds. In February, we also reduced the loan interest," he explained.

BCAs operational income in the first semester this year rose 15.5 percent to Rp26.1 trillion while operational burden also increased by 7.3 percent, failing to reach double digits, and touching Rp12.07 trillion.

The compensation of growth in credit distribution was seen in the hike of non-performing loan ratio to 1.4 percent by the end of June 2016 from 0.7 percent in June last year. Jahja, however, saw the trend of NPL hike would weaken.

"The NPL is indeed predicted to rise until September but the rise will not be drastic and may have a tendency of slowing seeing the start of improvement in the economy," he underlined.

To anticipate problem credits, the BCA has set up an additional reserve fund worth Rp2 trillion. In June, the ratio of the reserve to total problem credits reached 193 percent. The BCAs liquidity condition seemed to be easing continuously. Although the credit growth reached double digits, the ratio of funds to lending (LFR) was recorded at only 77.9 percent.

The LFR position was still below the central banks existing standard, which is at 78 to 92 percent. The newest standard is at 80-92 percent. In the first half of this year, the BCA collected Rp490.6 trillion in third-party funds, reflecting a growth of 7.8 percent.

With the credit achievement and the third party funds, BCA assets in the period were recorded at Rp626.1 trillion. (Ant)