Different Then And Now, Today's Banks Have A Lot Of Money To Face The Crisis

Money illustration. (Photo: VOI)

JAKARTA - Senior Portfolio Manager of PT Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia, Samuel Kesuma, said that credit realization and credit targets that only touched single digits indicated that banking liquidity was in a strong condition, aka abundant.

"This is what differentiates our banking today in facing a crisis. In the past, during the economic crisis, many banks really did not have money, but now there is plenty of liquidity, ”he said in the Market Outlook 2021 webinar, Wednesday, January 13.

Samuel added that this difference is proof that today the banking financial services institutions are in a mature condition and have made improvements in terms of performance and business after the crisis 98 ago.

"The banks are now quite strong, even though it is in a pandemic, but there are still those (credit) that are growing," he said.

Separately, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) claims that the stability of the financial services sector is well maintained throughout 2020 amidst the economic pressures that have occurred due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

"The policies (issued by the government) are very effective so that the domestic economy continues to improve gradually. In addition, financial system stability is still well maintained," said Chairman of the OJK Board of Commissioners Wimboh Santoso, Friday, January 15.

In its publication, the OJK stated that in the banking industry the slowdown in real sector activity and the incomplete operation of large corporations had made banking intermediation performance under pressure and contracted minus 2.41 percent in 2020.

However, state-owned bank credit still grew 0.63 percent and BPD grew 5.22 percent, and Islamic banks grew 9.50 percent.

The bank credit restructuring policy, which has been extended until the end of December, has reached Rp971 trillion from around 7.6 million SME and corporate debtors.

Then, banking liquidity was still quite adequate, indicated by banking liquid assets which continued to increase, reaching Rp2,111 trillion compared to last year's Rp1,251 trillion, with third party funds (TPF) growing by 11.11 percent.