Bank Jakarta and BEI Kompak Encourage Transformation and Quality in the Middle of Economic Dynamics

Bank Jakarta President Director Agus H Widodo. (Photo: special)

JAKARTA - The national financial industry is considered to still have strong fundamentals amid various global economic challenges.

However, changes in the business landscape and market behavior make industry players have to transform in order to remain relevant and able to grow sustainably.

Bank Jakarta President Director Agus H Widodo said that fundamentally the condition of the national banking sector is still in good condition.

This is reflected in the positive credit growth, strong capital, maintained liquidity, and relatively low non-performing loan (NPL) ratio.

"The question is not really in the fundamentals, but the playing field is changing," said Agus in a discussion "Shaping the Next Era of Indonesia's Capital Market", Investor Day 2026, Indonesia Stock Exchange Building, Jakarta, Tuesday, June 30.

According to him, in recent years the banking industry has faced various dynamics that are difficult to predict, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic, global geopolitical conflicts to changes in international trade policies.

This condition makes the bank no longer able to carry out business strategies as usual.

Agus also reminded of the pressure on the cost of funds or cost of funds for banks.

According to him, the deposit interest in the interbank fund auction had touched 11.5 percent, which was a signal of the increasing cost of fund collection for the banking industry.

Facing these changes, Bank Jakarta is carrying out transformations in various aspects of its business.

The transformation is carried out starting from strengthening the business model, digitization of services, risk management to the company's work culture.

As a bank whose majority shares are owned by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, Bank Jakarta focuses on business development on strengthening the local government ecosystem.

Agus said that the turnover of the budget in the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government environment has great potential that can become a source of sustainable business growth for the company.

In addition, Bank Jakarta is also accelerating a comprehensive digital transformation, ranging from updating technology infrastructure, developing applications to increasing human resource competence.

On the other hand, strengthening risk management is also a major concern.

According to Agus, the risks faced by the banking industry today are no longer limited to credit risk, but are increasingly multidimensional, including cyber security threats.

"The risk in the future will be increasingly multidimensional," he said.

BEI encourages quality investors

On the same occasion, Director of Bursa Efek Indonesia Development Jeffry Hendrik emphasized the importance of strengthening investor quality in supporting the deepening of the Indonesian capital market.

According to Jeffry, together with the Financial Services Authority and self-regulatory organization (SRO), the Stock Exchange continues to encourage increased market transparency, the provision of more granular investor data, market deepening, and strengthening the disclosure of information to the public.

"We believe that with better transparency, there will certainly be higher trust," said Jeffry.

He revealed that the number of domestic investors currently exceeds 28 million. However, the increase in the number of investors must be accompanied by an increase in quality in order to become a strong foundation for the national capital market.

Jeffry emphasized that the capital market needs investors who have adequate investment literacy and understanding. Investors also need to understand their respective risk profiles and not merely follow market trends.

"Being able to do analysis, not just following what influencers say, not FOMO," he said.

This message is in line with the strategy implemented by Bank Jakarta in facing the current economic dynamics.

Agus said the company was no longer pursuing growth alone, but rather prioritizing healthy and quality growth.

"We are not chasing after big growth, but what we are after is healthy and quality growth," said Agus.

Both the banking sector and the capital market assess that quality will be a determining factor in maintaining the resilience of the financial industry in the future.

Digital transformation, strengthening governance, transparency, and increasing financial literacy are considered to be an important foundation for facing increasingly rapid and complex changes.