Jakarta. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Indonesia’s largest micro-lender, reported a net profit of Rp 13.8 trillion ($827 million) in the first quarter of 2025, supported by strong growth in micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) lending and a surge in digital transactions.

Total assets rose 5.49 percent year-on-year to Rp 2,098.23 trillion, the state-owned bank said in a virtual earnings briefing on Wednesday. 

“Growth was driven by selective and high-quality loan disbursement, with all lending segments recording positive performance, particularly MSMEs,” said President Director Hery Gunardi.

BRI disbursed Rp 1,373.66 trillion in total loans during the period, marking a 4.97 percent increase from a year earlier. MSMEs remained the bank’s core lending base, accounting for nearly 82 percent of total loans, or Rp 1,126.02 trillion.

Gunardi said the positive momentum in MSME financing has been supported by BRI’s extensive agent network and financial inclusion efforts. The bank’s branchless banking initiative, Agen BRILink, expanded to 1.2 million agents as of March 2025, facilitating Rp 423 trillion in transactions during the quarter.

BRI also reported improvements in credit quality, supported by prudent risk management. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio improved to 2.97 percent from 3.11 percent a year ago, while the loan-at-risk (LAR) ratio dropped to 11.12  percent from 12.68 percent. The bank also maintained a robust NPL coverage ratio of 200.60 percent.

“This level of provisioning reinforces investor and stakeholder confidence and reflects our solid fundamentals,” Hery said.

On the funding side, BRI raised Rp 1,421.6 trillion in third-party funds, with low-cost current and savings accounts (CASA) making up 65.77 percent of the total. That marks an improvement from the 61.66 percent CASA ratio recorded in Q1 2024.

The CASA growth was attributed in part to the increasing adoption of the bank’s digital super app, BRImo. By the end of March, BRImo had 40.28 million users, up 20.26 percent year-on-year. The platform handled 1.2 billion financial transactions in the first quarter, with a total transaction volume of Rp 1,599 trillion, up 27.79 percent from the same period last year.

Liquidity and capital levels remained strong, with a loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of 86.03 percent and a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 24.03 percent, well above the regulatory minimum.

“Robust capital and liquidity give us ample room to grow sustainably in the quarters ahead,” Hery said.

BRI's shares dropped 1 percent to Rp 3,810 on Wednesday's trading.