JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BC extension) responded to Bank Indonesia’s (BI) call not to immediately translate an increase in the BI’s key interest rate into an increase in bank lending rates.
BCA Executive Vice President Corporate Communication & Social Responsibility Hera F. Haryn said that even though BI had raised its benchmark interest rate by 2% for 2022, BCA still needed to raise lending rates.
Meanwhile, BCA’s core lending rate (SBDK) remains the same, i.e. corporate loans at 7.95%, retail loans at 8.20%, consumer mortgage loans at 7.20% and retail loans. non-mortgage consumption at 5.96%.
“So far we have not increased credit interest rate”, he told Kompas.com, quoted on Sunday (12/25/2022).
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He explained, BCA as one of the national banks is committed to supporting the policies and directives of the government, regulators and banking authorities, including BI.
Furthermore, currently the national bank liquidity condition is still stable, allowing banks to grant credit at affordable interest rates to promote economic growth.
“We also appreciate that Bank Indonesia’s statement is a positive thing in supporting the recovery of the domestic economy amid existing challenges,” he said.
According to him, BI’s move to raise the benchmark interest rate five-fold so far this year to 5.5% was due to consideration of economic fundamentals, including the stabilization of the rupee exchange rate and the strengthening of the national economic recovery.
Read also: BI rate hike, economists: Banks won’t be tempted to hike credit interest rates
However, BCA will examine the impact of this upward trend in benchmark interest rates and prepare the right strategy to address it so that the community can still be optimally served.
While lending rates were unaffected by the increase in BI’s benchmark interest rate, since October 2022 the company has raised interest rates on foreign currency (forex) deposits, which currently hover around 0, 75-1.75%.
Meanwhile, since November 2022, BCA has also gradually raised the interest rate on rupee deposits. Currently, rupee deposits range from 2 to 2.10%.
As previously reported, BI Governor Perry Warjiyo said BI was taking steps to raise its benchmark interest rate to support economic growth amid global turmoil and control inflation due to rising prices of fuel (BBM) some time ago.
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So far, it has been shown that the BI’s key interest rate increased by 2%, Indonesia’s economic growth remained high at 5.72% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022, and inflation fell to 5 .42% in November 2022.
However, this positive economic performance needs to continue to improve so that domestic banks are advised not to rush to pass on the increase in the key interest rate to lending rates.
“In fact, there is no intention from BI to scale up Interest rate BI This rate will then be followed excessively by an increase in interest rates on domestic credit,” he said during a press conference on Thursday (22/12/2022).
BI admits it continues to work to ensure bank liquidity remains loose in order to support the availability of funds for banks to channel credit or finance to the corporate world.
In November 2022, BI noted that the ratio of cash to third party funds (AL/DPK) remained high, reaching 30.42%.
“We are now making sure that the AL/DPK is more than adequate to allow banks to extend credit without having to raise interest rates,” he said.
Read also: Standard interest rate increases by 2%, BI asks banks not to increase credit interest
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