BANKING - Syaria Banks Growing Rapidly

TEMPO Interactive, Bantul:Bank Indonesia said that syaria banks are growing rapidly. In 2009, assets of syaria banks grew by 26.5 percent and continued to increase to 44 percent as per September 2010. There are now 11 syaria banks, 23 syaria business units and 45 Syaria people’s credit banks in 103 cities in the country’s 33 provinces.

“Its growth exceeded that of general or conventional banks, which was only 18 percent,” said Mulya Effendi Siregar, Bank Indonesia’s Syaria Bank Director, during the official opening of the Syaria Bank Research Forum at Muhammadiyah University Yogyakarta yesterday.

There is also a significant improvement in the quality of syaria banks he added. This is reflected in the low non-performing loan ratio, which is at 1.64 percent, and the high credit ratio, which is 95.4 percent.

Bank Indonesia hopes that syaria banks can grow by up to 45 percent next year. Such optimism is possible because Indonesia’s macro-economic condition has improved. The economy is projected to grow by 6.5 percent.

Rizqullah, the BNI Syaria Bank CEO, is of the opinion that the niche for the syaria market is still very large. “The potential is unlimited,” he said yesterday at Tempo’s office.

He is convinced that Islamic banking will grow rapidly. Unfortunately, the large market is not accompanied with the industry’s absorption capability. The assets currently managed by syaria banks only amount to Rp 98 trillion (three percent from the total industry’s assets), meanwhile BNI Syaria’s assets amount to Rp6 trillion and is projected to increase by Rp9 trillion by next year.

The main challenge is the insufficiency of human resources to accommodate the rise, Rizqullah said.


MUH SYAIFULLAH | AGUSSUP 

Source : http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2010/12/10/brk,20101210-297974,uk.html - Dec 10, 2010