Jakarta. State-owned bank BNI is embracing transformation and innovation in a bid to book a strong performance.

According to BNI president director Royke Tumilaar, the bank is focusing on developing its technology infrastructure and digital innovations to boost its transactional capabilities, particularly on the BNI Mobile Banking and BNIDirect apps with an aim of making BNI the top-of-mind transactional bank.

"BNI also actively expands its partnership with open API platforms and embraces state-of-the-art technology such as AI, blockchain, and metaverse to widen the business ecosystem and boost customers’ experience,” Royke was quoted as saying in a statement.

BNI will also focus on boosting its current account saving account (CASA) and fee-based income (FBI). It will also simultaneously expand its business, particularly to its top-tier customers, starting with the corporate and its derivative businesses within prospective industry sectors, as well as the consumer segment, by still upholding prudential banking principles.

“We will also continue our human capital, culture, and operational transformations, so they are more agile and lean in supporting our business. We will strengthen our international business networks to help our global market penetration while optimizing BNI Group’s synergy in strengthening the position of our subsidiaries,” Royke said.

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Royke said he hoped all these transformations could help power BNI’s future performance and achieve its targets: a credit growth of up to 10 percent with a gross non-performing loan of less than 2.5 percent in end-2023. This growth is expected to bring a positive impact on the company’s profitability so that its net interest margin (NIM) is forecast to be above 4.8 percent and a return on equity (ROE) stands between 15.7 percent and 16 percent.

Royke said that 2023 would be a year full of challenges amidst economic slowdown and global inflation. Not to mention the Russia-Ukraine war that takes a toll on the global economy. Even so, there is still an opportunity for Indonesia to maintain the economic growth momentum on a positive trend, as inflation shows signs of easing to 3.8 percent as the impact of rising fuel prices on consumer inflation subsides. The stability of the national economy will become a catalyst for the banking sector’s business growth.

“By taking into account the prospects and business potential as well as the macroeconomic condition, the company remains optimistic of a positive performance as our transformation agenda continues in 2023,” Royke added.