In order to support Indonesia's sharply depreciated rupiah exchange rate, the central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia or BI) improved provisions for Hedge Swap Transactions through Bank Indonesia Regulation No.15/17/PBI/2013 (which takes effect as of 3 February 2014). Through this arrangement, Indonesian banks can sell their US dollars to BI at the current spot rate and promise to buy the amount at a later date on an agreed rate. This protects banks against fluctuations in the rupiah exchange rate.

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Bank Indonesia (Indonesia's central bank) has expressed that it will support slowing credit growth in the country's banking sector next year in order to foster a more stable financial environment amid a complex external and internal context. In recent years, credit growth in Indonesia has grown over 20 percent annually, while in 2013 it is expected to slow to between 18 and 20 percent amid a tighter policy regime. In 2014, Bank Indonesia targets credit growth between 15 to 17 percent. As a result banks will be more cautious in their lending approach.

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Fitch Ratings, one of the three major global rating agencies, affirmed Indonesia's sovereign credit rating at BBB- with a stable outlook. In a press release, the rating agency mentioned four key factors that led to the affirmation of the sovereign rating. These are: good policy management by Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) and government amid external pressures, relatively high economic growth, prudent fiscal management (resulting in low public debt), and a strong banking sector (confirmed by multiple stress tests).

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Agus Martowardojo, Governor of Indonesia's central bank, expects the Indonesian economy to consolidate in 2014. The country is currently experiencing an economic correction with GDP growth slowing to 5.62 percent in the third quarter of 2013. Martowardojo said that the current account deficit still needs time to reach a healthy level. Indonesia's current account deficit stood at USD $8.4 billion (equivalent to 3.8 percent of the country's GDP) in the third quarter of 2013, down from USD $9.8 billion (4.4 percent of GDP) in the second quarter.

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Despite Indonesia's macroeconomic conditions and liquidity experiencing a correction, Fitch Ratings believes that Indonesia's major banks are able to withstand a reasonably high degree of asset-quality stress, mainly due to the banks' strong standalone loss absorption cushions and likely support from highly rated foreign parent companies. Because of the banks' sound earnings buffers, they are expected to cope with the higher non-performing loans (NPLs) which are expected to emerge in the next one or two years ahead.

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Moody's Investors Service, one of the big credit rating agencies, stated in its 'Credit Analysis: Indonesia' report that - despite the ongoing current account deficit (which is considered to be structural) and a relatively shallow and volatile domestic capital market (which contributes to Indonesia’s reliance on external funding) - the agency is positive about Indonesia's outlook due to its growth prospects, narrow fiscal deficits and low public debt. Indonesian government bonds are rated at Baa3, which is Moody's lowest investment-grade status.

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The Rating and Investment Information Inc (R&I), a rating agency from Japan, kept Indonesia’s Sovereign Credit Rating at BBB- with a stable outlook. In their press release, R&I stated that the four key factors behind the decision are: (a) Indonesia’s capacity to achieve sustainable economic growth in the long term (at around six percent per year); (b) conservative fiscal management (causing a marginal fiscal deficit); (c) a sound banking sector; and (d) a low level of government debt.

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Bank Negara Indonesia is the fourth-largest bank of Indonesia in terms of assets, lending and third party funds. The bank provides financial services which are supported by its subsidiaries in shariah banking (Bank BNI Syariah), financing (BNI Multi Finance), the capital market (BNI Securities), and insurance (BNI Life Insurance). In 1996, BNI became the first state-owned bank to go public on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) when it sold 25 percent of its equity to the public.

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An updated profile of Bank Mandiri is presented in our Indonesian Companies' section. Bank Mandiri, which is Indonesia’s largest financial institution by assets, offers businesses and individuals throughout Indonesia a full set of banking and non-banking products and services. The bank was established as a result of the Asian Financial Crisis when four state-owned banks (Bank Exim, Bank Bumi Daya, Bank Dagang Negara and Bapindo) were merged into Bank Mandiri as part of the government's bank restructuring program.

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Indonesia Investments updated the company file of Bank Central Asia (BCA). The company is Indonesia’s largest lender by market value and the country's second largest bank by assets. Robust loan disbursements translated into BCA's higher net profit growth in the first half of 2013. In this period the bank posted a 19.3 percent growth (yoy) in net profits to IDR 6.3 trillion, mainly supported by higher net interest income and fee-based income. The bank's loan portfolio grew 24 percent to IDR 280.4 trillion.

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While the benchmark stock indices in the United States, China and Japan all showed steep declines in 2022, Indonesia’s benchmark stock index (IDX Composite or IHSG) managed to rise 4.09 percent to 6,850.62 points last year.

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If everything goes according to plan, then the three Islamic finance units of state-controlled conventional banks Bank Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) will merge into one entity early next year.

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In July 2020, the five winners of the annual Investor Awards were revealed. Each year, business and investment magazine Investor analyzes the performances of all listed companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and presents awards to the top five.

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If you move to Indonesia for a longer period – either for work or just for living – you will most likely want (or need) to open a bank account at a local bank (or a foreign bank that has a branch in Indonesia). After all, if you continue to use a foreign bank account, then it will involve relatively high bank charges each time you withdraw money from the automated teller machine (ATM) in Indonesia, or when you conduct an international transaction (online banking).

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At a special occasion at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged local banks to become more aggressive in terms of lending as credit disbursement in Indonesia's banking sector only reached IDR 4,782 trillion (approx. USD $349 billion) in 2017, hence growing by only a modest 8.3 percent year-on-year (y/y), thus unable to provide an optimal boost to domestic economic growth.

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The Queen of the Netherlands, Maxima, visited Indonesia between 11-13 February 2018 to monitor the progress of Indonesia's Financial Inclusion Program, a program that was launched in August 2016 during Maxima's last visit to Indonesia. Hence, during her latest visit, the Dutch Queen came in her role as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

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Since Friday (25/08) many Indonesians are having trouble to use ATMs (for withdrawing money and conducting various payments). Last week the Telkom-1 satellite started to suffer technical difficulties as a shift on the satellite's pointing antenna disrupted transponders. Considering most of Indonesia's major banks use this satellite, owned by Telekomunikasi Indonesia, for their telecommunication network, thousands of ATMs - hence millions of Indonesians - are affected.

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Bank Mandiri, one of Indonesia's leading financial institutions, plans to conduct a stock split in order to enhance investor interest by making its stocks more affordable and liquid for retail investors. However, the state-controlled lender is still studying whether to opt for a 2-for-1 stock split or a 3-for-1 split. Bank Mandiri is one of Indonesia's blue chip stocks that ranks among the biggest 10 companies in terms of market capitalization on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

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The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in Indonesia's mining and excavation sector has risen drastically over the past year. Moreover, there seems few room for an improvement of the NPL ratio in this sector on the short term because mining and excavation companies are expected to remain amid tough conditions in the remainder of the year. The NPL ratio is a key indicator for measuring bad loans.

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Both Moody's Investors Service and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released positive reports on Indonesia's banking sector. While Moody's changed its outlook on Indonesia's banking sector from stable to positive, the IMF said Indonesia's banking system is strong enough to cope with relatively slow economic growth and a rise in bad loans.

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