PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BNI is taking conservative steps in lending amidst banking liquidity challenges. This step is evidenced by a measured expansion in lending in the first quarter of 2025, dominated by the high-quality corporate segment.
BNI Corporate Secretary Okki Rushartomo said, in the face of global uncertainty, BNI remains focused on improving credit quality and maintaining liquidity.
“BNI focuses on strengthening liquidity by balancing lending growth and risk factors, this can be seen from the contribution of the quality corporate segment which dominated lending in the first quarter of this year,” Okki said in a written statement.
In the first quarter of 2025, BNI recorded lending growth of 10.1% compared to the same period last year (YoY) to Rp765.47 trillion. The corporate segment dominates BNI's lending portfolio at 56.6% and the consumer segment is the second largest contributor at 18.9%. Meanwhile, from the medium and small segments, BNI's efforts are made through the acquisition of credit that becomes a supply chain (value chain) from corporate customers and other existing customers.
In terms of third party fund (DPK) collection, digital transformation also supported the increase in low-cost funds. BNI recorded a 5% growth in deposits to Rp819.58 trillion. The composition of deposits was dominated by solid savings growth of 10.2% and current accounts which grew 3.4% YoY. This resulted in BNI's CASA composition at 70.5%, an increase compared to the end of 2024 at 69.9%. The cost of funds in the first quarter of 2025 was at the level of 2.75% on an annualized basis and improved compared to the first quarter of 2024 at the level of 2.79%.
The strategy to maintain liquidity can be seen by the decline in the loan to deposit ratio (LDR) on a quarterly basis, from 96.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 93.1% in the first quarter of this year. With this liquidity flexibility, BNI will be able to grow credit according to the target set while maintaining prudence.
In terms of asset quality, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was maintained at 2% and loan at risk (LAR) fell to 10.9% from 13.3% in the first quarter of 2024. This quality improvement also resulted in savings in provisioning expenses formed or credit cost from 1% to 0.9% which is also in line with BNI's aspiration target this year.