Entering The Political Year, Bank Sampoerna Pede Credit Distribution Continues To Grow

JAKARTA - Ahead of the General Election (Pemilu) in 2024, PT Bank Sahabat Sampoerna (Bank Sampoerna) believes that the company's credit distribution will remain steady as in 2023.

Bank Sampoerna Corporate Communication and Investor Relations Head Ridy Sudarma said the company's credit growth in 2024 will still be around 10-15 percent. This is due to the low base effect caused by the covid pandemic in the previous year.

Just so you know, Bank Sampoerna recorded total credit at the end of this period reaching Rp11.3 trillion, an increase of 23.1 percent compared to total credit in the previous year. This growth is supported by MSMEs which hold a portion of 60 percent of the loan or Rp6.8 trillion.

Ridy believes that the political year will not affect credit growth. He said that if in the previous year's election it would affect the decline in loan growth, something different would happen during this election period. With the low base effect, elections will not affect the growth in lending.

"This year, surprisingly, it is still quite high. It is possible that this year it will not follow the previous year because this year the growth is still quite good," he said in a media meeting in Jakarta, quoted on Wednesday, November 29.

Moreover, with economic growth which is estimated to range from 5.2 to 5.3 percent, credit growth is estimated to reach 10-15 percent.

"The rule of thumb, if the economy is 5 percent, the average credit growth can be 2 to 3 times economic growth," added Ridy.

Although credit growth remains steady, Ridy ensured that his party continued to take various actions to maintain the company's bad credit ratio or non-performing loans (NPL) below 4 percent.

The strategy implemented by Bank Sampoerna is to strengthen credit analysis. In addition, Bank Sampoerna also cooperates with other parties to conduct credit analysis and continue to check with various parties.

"The bureau's checking is not only the OJK SHIK, but there are also checks to Pefindo or other checks for the credit assessment process," concluded Ridy.