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Mid-size lender Bank NISP expects to increase its lending by
30 percent to Rp 5 trillion (about US$540 million) in 2007, with at
least 60 percent of the loans going to small and medium-sized
businesses.
The target is higher than estimated loan growth of between 20 and 25
percent last year, NISP president director Pramukti Surjaudaja (center)
said Thursday after a shareholders meeting.
He was accompanied by Tong Lay Kuen Rose (left), who was appointed by
the meeting as corporate director, and another director, Kamsidin
Wirahadikusumah.
"In the last six months of 2006, especially after the BI rate went
down, we saw even better credit growth," Pramukti added.
Pramukti said he was optimistic about the target, citing the country's
favorable growth environment.
"Along with the declining trend in the Bank Indonesia rate, ideally
bank interest rates will fall from the current 14 to 15 percent to
between 10 and 12 percent. In that way, the real sector will be able to
grow even better," he said.
In the first nine months of 2006, NISP's net profit increased 104.58
percent, up Rp 171 billion from Rp 84 billion in 2005, thanks to a
20.78 percent increase in net interest income of Rp 638 billion from
the same period the year before.
Commenting on Tong, also an OCBC senior vice president and head of a
franchise and marketing group, Pramukti said he believed that she, with
20 years experience in the banking industry, would enhance the bank's
management team.
OCBC is NISP's largest shareholder, holding a 72.35 percent stake. The
World Bank's investment arm, the International Finance Corporation
(IFC), holds a 7.17 percent stake, while the investing public controls
the remaining 20.48 percent of shares.
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