Merger Of Three Sharia BUMN Banks, Jokowi: The Awakening Of A Sleeping Giant

President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo by: Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) continues to target the development of sharia economy and finance in the country. The goal is to give birth to a new economic giant in the Islamic financial sector. This giant will be formed by merging a number of state-owned bank assets into one.

"The Islamic finance industry is a sleeping giant. Currently the government has a big concern to revive this giant. One of them is by building a state-owned sharia bank merger or the largest Islamic bank in Indonesia," he said, opening the Indonesia Sharia Economic Festival (ISEF) 2020. virtually, Wednesday, October 28.

Jokowi said that all the assets of the state-owned Islamic bank would be merged into one to create a giant Islamic bank. The three banks are Bank BRI Syariah, Bank Syariah Mandiri, and Bank BNI Syariah.

"The total assets of the three state-owned sharia banks until the first semester of 2020 are Rp. 214 trillion. A very large number," he said.

Furthermore, Jokowi said that Islamic economics and finance still have a very big opportunity to be developed. Not only enjoyed by the majority of Muslim population countries, but also by other countries such as Japan, Thailand, England and the United States.

"Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, must seize this opportunity. By encouraging the acceleration of economic development and national sharia finance. As part of the transformation towards an advanced Indonesia, and as an effort to become a reference center for the global sharia economy. The government also has a National Committee" Sharia Economics and Finance (KNEKS), "he explained.

According to Jokowi, to accelerate the Islamic economy and finance is with a major strategy to strengthen the halal value chain sector, strengthen Islamic finance, strengthen MSMEs and strengthen the digital economy.

Previously, Vice President (Wapres) Ma'ruf Amin hoped that the combined Islamic bank, which is a subsidiary of 3 state-owned banks, could operate as soon as possible. Ma'ruf projects that the merger of Bank BRI Syariah, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank BNI Syariah can start operating in February 2021.

"This new Islamic bank is expected to be fully operational in February 2021," he said, on Tuesday, October 27.

The merger of state-owned sharia banks is considered important to maximize the potential of Islamic finance in the country today. In addition, Maruf also hopes that this joint unit can quickly compete in the world banking market.

"By joining the three Islamic banks, the new Islamic bank is expected to be able to compete competitively at the global level," he said.