BNI's Profit up 30 Percent in H1

Jakarta (Antara) - State-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) posted a net profit of Rp4.28 trillion in the first half of 2013, up by 30.20 percent from the same period last year. "The profit hike was chiefly contributed by net interest income which reached Rp8.90 trillion or grew 23.1 percent," BNI President Director Gatot M Suwondo said here on Thursday. Non-interest income meanwhile contributed Rp4.56 trillion or 22.0 percent of the overall profit, he said. The two income sources caused the bank's operating income to grow by 22 percent to Rp4.56 trillion from the first semester of 2012, he said. "The increase in our operating income was the result of our credit expansion which focuses on business agents in eight key sectors. The credits extended to the key sectors represented 70 percent of BNI's total credit portfolio," he said. The credit expansion in the first semester of 2013 reached 84 percent compared to 74 percent in the same period last year, he said. Gatot said BNI supported the government's program to boost the national economy by upgrading its 116 medium-sized customers to corporate customers with a total credit of Rp10.3 trillion. (*)