02/02/2021
1 February 2021
JAKARTA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - President Joko Widodo launched operations of Indonesia's largest Islamic lender on Monday in a move to boost the sharia finance industry in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.
Bank Syariah Indonesia was formed by merging Islamic banking units of Indonesia's state-lenders BNI Syariah and Bank Syariah Mandiri into BRI Syariah BRIS.JK, combining 240 trillion rupiah ($17.13 billion) in assets and core capital of 22.6 trillion rupiah as of December 2020.
Following the merger, it becomes Indonesia's seventh-biggest lender.
"Amid a pandemic crisis, I am pleased that the performance of sharia banking in Indonesia has kept a stable growth," said the president, who is better known as Jokowi, during Monday's launch, noting sharia banks fared better than conventional lenders in 2020 in terms of assets, third-party funds and financing growth.
Indonesia's largest Islamic bank starts operations Published Feb 1, 2021 3:12AM EST Indonesia's largest Islamic bank starts operations | NASDAQ JAKARTA, Feb 1 (Reuters) - President Joko Widodo launched operations of Indonesia's largest Islamic lender on Monday in a move to boost the sharia finance i...