Jakarta. Sunarso, the president director of the state-owned banking giant BRI, recently took home The Asian Banker CEO Leadership Achievement for Indonesia award, according to a press release.

Since 2004, The Asian Banker has presented the award to the leaders of financial institutions across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, who have shown strong leadership.

The Asian Banker award recognizes Sunarso’s leadership in BRI as he leads the banking giant with a strong vision, while also being able to communicate it and inspire the team. 

The Asian Banker also gave BRI the "best-managed bank in Indonesia" award for its strategic response amid the global economic turbulence and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sunarso dedicated the awards to Insan BRILIaN —  a nickname for BRI employees, which also sounds like the word “brilliant”. 

According to Sunarso, a leader’s job is to motivate his team so they can give their best to the company. The ability to inspire is also pivotal to one’s leadership so employees can find meaning in what they do every day. Sunarso also highlighted the need to give clear instructions to his team so they could all achieve the company’s common goal. Under his leadership, BRI continues to make changes focusing on digital and culture. 

"We continue to create new values through digitalization and this can pave the way for new business models. We also instill a performance-driven culture so all BRILIaN must be capable of designing and planning their own success,” Sunarso was quoted as saying in a recent press release. 

“A company’s task is to provide a field for healthy competition and work. So in the end, everyone can bring out their best potential,” Sunarso said.

BRI also managed to survive the Covid-19 pandemic while also posting a stellar performance. It also ramped up its focus on its core business, namely in the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector.

BRI Group reported that it recorded a net profit of Rp 39.31 trillion as of Sep. 2022, marking a 106.14 percent year-on-year growth. The bank’s total assets also grew 4 percent YoY to Rp 1,684.6. As of end-2022, BRI Group has disbursed Rp 1,111.48 trillion in loans, up by 7.92 percent YoY. BRI’s loan portfolio for the MSME sector rose 9.83 percent from Rp 852.12 trillion in Sep. 2021 to Rp 935.86 trillion in Sep. 2022. The MSME sector now makes up 84.2 percent of BRI’s total credits.

Alain Chevalier, the chairman of the Asian Banker Future of Finance Summit Advisory Council, said that Sunarso had led BRI with a strong commitment to foster the MSME sector, as the bank strives to be Southeast Asia’s most valuable banking group and a champion of financial inclusion by 2025.

According to Alain, BRI had shown its commitment to supporting MSMEs —which has greatly contributed to Indonesia’s economic resilience— as the bank’s loan disbursement for the sector consistently grows.