JAKARTA: Publicly listed lender Bank Central Asia (BCA) saw single digit net-profit growth during the nine-month period of this year as the country’s slow economy affected its loans and revenues.
The bank, which is the country’s largest private lender owned by conglomerate Djarum Group, reported that its consolidated net profit grew by around 9.6 percent to Rp 13.3 trillion (US$981.2 million) between January and September, from Rp 12.2 trillion in the same period last year.
“We were able to book positive growth and maintain healthy asset quality at the same time during the nine-month period of this year,” BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja said in a press conference on Wednesday.
The net-profit increase was contributed by 11.4 percent growth to Rp 26.2 trillion in net interest income as of September, from Rp 23.5 trillion in the same period last year.
Its non-interest income also grew by 22.9 percent to Rp 8.1 trillion between January and September, from Rp 6.6 trillion in the same period last year, with sky-rocketing 1,170 percent net-gain growth to Rp 965 billion from mark-to-market on financial assets.
BCA vice president director Eugene K. Galbraith said the mark-to-market on financial assets result reflected the bank’s liquid condition in terms swap and forward transactions amid rupiah depreciation in the past few months.
Meanwhile, BCA’s outstanding loans grew 10.3 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 364.8 trillion as of September, from Rp 330.6 trillion in the same period last year, boosted by the corporate segment, which grew 12 percent yoy to Rp 126.1 trillion.
Loans in other segments such as commercial and small and medium enterprise (SME) as well as consumer increased by 9.3 percent yoy to Rp 140.4 trillion and 9.8 percent yoy to Rp 98.5 trillion, respectively.
Jahja said the bank’s gross non-performing loan (NPL) remained unchanged on an annual basis at 0.7 percent as of September, saying that “based on nine-month loan growth, we will stick to our lending target of around 11 to 12 percent this year as budgeted.”
BCA also saw 7 percent yoy growth to Rp 462.3 trillion in third-party funding (DPK) between January and September, with 76.5 percent of the amount comprising current and savings account (CASA), or low-cost funds.
