Resistant Housing Sector, Bank BTN Towards Best Mortgage Bank ASEAN In 2025

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk or Bank BTN may be the smallest bank among the four state-owned banks. But the growth of its financial performance can be pitted.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Indonesia in early 2020, almost all industries have experienced an economic impact. State-owned banks are no exception.

But in fact, among the four state-owned banks, Bank BTN has actually shown its strength in facing economic pressures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just look at its profit achievement which grew fantastically at the end of 2020.

At that time, Bank BTN's profit reached Rp. 1.6 trillion, up 665.71 percent from the end of 2019 period of Rp. 209 billion. Of course this is very encouraging considering the three other state-owned banks recorded a decline in profit.

In fact, the government's mandate for Bank BTN to focus on distributing housing loans (KPR), is a blessing in itself. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, public interest in owning a house with credit funding was still quite high.

As a result, Bank BTN continued its positive performance when closing 2021. The bank's profit with the BBTN stock code grew again. The value is IDR 2.38 trillion, up 48.3 percent.

Of course, the note made the President Director of Bank BTN Haru Koesmahargyo give thanks. The reason is, Haru has only led this bank with assets of Rp. 321.87 trillion since March 2021.

"We are optimistic that when the economy recovers and the pandemic passes completely, demand for mortgages can increase even higher," Haru said when explaining the performance of Bank BTN 2021, Tuesday, February 8.

According to Haru, credit growth has confirmed that the housing sector has proven to be quite resilient in weathering the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

“Financing for home ownership continues to flow even though the purchasing power of consumers is relatively low. This is evident from the company's credit distribution, which grew higher than the average credit for the banking industry in the range of 5.24 percent," he said.

Haru added that various incentives provided by the government managed to maintain consumer purchasing power so that demand for housing loans continued to increase.

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. LinkAja)

For information, throughout 2021, subsidized mortgages will still be the main support for Bank BTN's credit growth with an increase of 8.2 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp130.68 trillion. The increase in the distribution of subsidized mortgages makes BTN still dominate the share of subsidized mortgages by around 90 percent.

2022 Target and 2025 Vision

Entering 2022, Bank BTN is not easily satisfied with the achievements in previous years. In fact, this mortgage specialist bank has prepared 5 pillars of a sustainable finance action plan (RKAB) which can finally bring business transformation to the Best Mortgage Bank ASEAN in 2025.

The five RKABs include products, procedures and policies, technology, social and environmental responsibility, and human resources.

Quoting Bank BTN's 2021 annual report, the product pillar means the development of products and services that pay attention to economic, social and environmental aspects. Meanwhile, procedures and policies are carried out to ensure that policies and risk mitigation have been implemented for products and services.

In terms of technology, Bank BTN is ready to implement the use of digital applications for product and service development.

Bank BTN also does not forget to pay attention to social and environmental responsibilities by compiling a series of programs, including those related to social society. The human resource capacity is prepared to support the implementation of sustainable finance.

In the annual report, Haru said, meeting the housing needs of the middle to lower class and concern for the interests of the community are the sustainability values of Bank BTN to become the Best Mortgage Bank in ASEAN in 2025.

In fact, BTN's big target has received a good response from the Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. "BTN must continue the transformation that has been carried out by strengthening the company's fundamentals so that it can be more expansive," Erick said as quoted by Antara while attending the commemoration of the 72nd anniversary of Bank BTN in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 9.

SOE Minister Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Bank BTN)

Not only that, Erick reminded that BTN must also improve its business processes, develop digitalization, adhere to core values in order to realize BTN's vision to become the best mortgage bank in Southeast Asia.

Haru also realizes that to bring Bank BTN as the Best Mortgage Bank in ASEAN in 2025 is not easy and full of challenges. Therefore, Bank BTN is committed to synergizing with stakeholders and building collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships.