Amid Global Economic Dynamics, BRI Recorded Profit Of IDR 13.8 Trillion

BRI President Director Hery Gunardi said that during the first quarter of 2025 the global economy was still colored by uncertainty. (IST)

JAKARTA - In the midst of global economic dynamics due to geopolitical tension and tariff wars, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BRI is still able to show positive growth in all business segments, especially by still placing the MSME segment as the main focus. The positive growth in all business segments was followed by BRI's consolidated net profit achievement in the first quarter of 2025 which reached IDR 13.80 trillion.

This was conveyed at BRI's Press Conference on Financial Performance Quarter I 2025 by BRI President Director Hery Gunardi, and attended by BRI Finance & Strategy Director Viviana Dyah Ayu, BRI Risk Management Director Mucharom, Micro BRI Director Akhmad Purwawajaya, and BRI Network & Retail Funding Director Aquarius Rudianto.

Opening his presentation, BRI President Director Hery Gunardi said that during the first quarter of 2025 the global economy was still marked by uncertainty, especially due to geopolitical tensions and continued impacts from tariff wars which helped suppress international trade activities and supply chains.

Hery revealed that BRI estimates that there will be a short-term impact due to the new tariff policy. However, negotiations are currently underway between Indonesia and the United States which are expected to produce a better agreement. It should be noted that the Indonesian economy, including BRI's business, relies more on domestic consumption. So that apart from the depreciation of the currency that has occurred, the tariff war is projected not to have a significant impact," he said.

In addition, domestic consumption is still the main contributor to Indonesia's economic growth, which is recorded to still grow positively. However, domestic consumption has not fully recovered as was the condition before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is a challenge for the MSME sector which relies heavily on people's purchasing power. Under these conditions, BRI continues to strengthen its role as a pro-people bank while still focusing on developing and empowering Indonesia's Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), as a real effort to support national economic growth and resilience," explained Hery.

In the midst of the dynamics of the global economy which is still full of challenges, BRI Group was able to record a net profit of IDR 13.80 trillion and assets reached IDR 2,098.23 trillion or grew 5.49% year on year (yoy). This growth was driven by selective and quality lending, where all credit segments recorded positive growth while still focusing on the MSME segment.

In terms of lending, Director of Micro BRI Akhmad Purwawajaya explained that BRI has recorded credit disbursement of Rp1,373.66 trillion or grew 4.97% yoy. BRI's credit distribution is still dominated by the MSME segment with a portion of 81.97% of BRI's total credit, or with a nominal value of Rp1,126.02 trillion.

BRI's MSME credit distribution, which continues to grow positively, was also accompanied by various initiatives to increase financial literacy and inclusion. One of them, through Agent BRILink, whose number has reached 1.2 million agents, shows significant growth with growth of 49.48% yoy.

"These agents are spread over 67,000 villages or reach more than 88% of the total villages in Indonesia, and record a transaction volume of IDR 423 trillion along the first quarter of 2025", said Akhmad.

As is known, Agent BRILink is an expansion of BRI's services, where BRI cooperates with customers as agents/partners who can serve banking transactions for the public in real-time online with the concept of sharing fees.

The various BRI initiatives reinforce BRI's commitment to strengthening the foundations of the people's economy and play a strategic role in creating jobs and reducing poverty levels. This is in line with the national development vision as stated in the Asta Cita of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia," explained Akhmad.

Regarding credit quality, BRI Risk Management Director Mucharom explained that BRI credit growth was also followed by quality improvements obtained from the effective and prudent implementation of risk management in lending. This is reflected in BRI's Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio which improved from 3.11% at the end of the first quarter of 2024 to 2.97% at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The Loan at Risk (LAR) ratio also continued to improve, from 12.68% at the end of the first quarter of 2024 to 11.12% at the end of the first quarter of 2025.

On the other hand, BRI also continues to prepare adequate reserves to anticipate the potential for loss of asset quality. This is reflected in BRI's NPL Coverage Ratio which reached 200.60%.

"With this very adequate coverage ratio, BRI is not only able to maintain balance sheet stability in a sustainable manner, but also provides confidence to investors, regulators, and all stakeholders that the company has strong fundamentals in dealing with economic dynamics, especially in the midst of global economic and geopolitical pressure conditions such as tariff wars," Mucharom explained.

Next is BRI Network & Retail Funding Director Aquarius Rudianto who explained the performance of BRI's Third Party Funds. In terms of Third Party Funds (DPK), BRI was able to collect DPK of Rp1,421.60 trillion. Cheap funds (CASA) dominate the collection of BRI DPK with a proportion of 65.77% or equivalent to Rp934.95 trillion', said Aquarius.

BRI's CASA achievement was recorded to have increased compared to the CASA portion in the same period the previous year of 61.66%. One of the BRI's CASA achievements was supported by the growth of BRImo's Super App digital transactions which further strengthened BRI's position in digital banking services in Indonesia.

"Until the end of March 2025, BRImo super app users have reached 40.28 million users, or an increase of 20.26% yoy. Meanwhile, in terms of the number and value of transactions, in the first quarter of 2025 BRImo served 1.2 billion financial transactions, an increase of 25.5% YoY with a volume of Rp. 1,599 trillion or an increase of 27.79% YoY," said Aquarius.

Aquarius added that in facing the digitalization era, BRI is also actively building modern payment infrastructure by expanding the reach of non-cash transaction services throughout the community. This is evidenced by BRI's success in building a digital payment ecosystem with the support of more than 4.3 million QRIS merchants and 344 thousand EDC merchants spread from the city center to remote villages.

From the liquidity and capital side, BRI is also in a strong condition, so BRI still has room to grow better in the coming period. This was conveyed by the Director of Finance & Strategy BRI Viviana Dyah Ayu.

BRI's positive performance until the end of March 2025 was also supported by adequate liquidity conditions and strong capital. This was demonstrated by the Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR) Bank being at the level of 86.03% with a capital adequacy Ratio (CAR) Capital ratio of 24.03%. BRI's Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) position is well above the required minimum CAR limit provisions," said Viviana.

At the close of the press conference, BRI President Director Hery Gunardi explained that currently the company is faced with global challenges that are not easy. However, behind these challenges, BRI sees great opportunities to continue to grow, innovate, and strengthen BRI's position in the national and regional financial industries.

Currently BRI has a very strong foundation for optimizing these opportunities. BRI has more than 36,600 marketers consisting of micro marketers (Mantri), RM Lending, and RM Funding & Transaction and BRI are also supported by more than 6 thousand work units, ranging from Branch Offices to BRI Units spread to remote parts of the country. Making BRI as the bank with the widest network and reach in Indonesia," said Hery.

In addition, Hery added that BRI also has a large customer base where until the end of March 2025 there were more than 221 million savings accounts and 211 thousand QLola users in the corporate segment. This is not just a number, this is a large ecosystem that will become BRI's strategic strength in the future.

Hery explained that BRI's transformation towards universal banking is the answer to current challenges. BRI will not only be the best bank in the MSME segment, but must also be able to serve the entire spectrum of customer needs from individuals to large corporations, in all levels of society.

"With a positive performance foothold in the first three months of 2025, in the future BRI is optimistic that it can record sustainable financial performance growth by prioritizing good prudential banking and risk management principles in the midst of dynamics of global economic conditions," concluded Hery.

For information, BRI President Director Hery Gunardi, BRI Risk Management Director Mucharom, BRI Micro Director Akhmad Purwawajaya, and BRI Network & Retail Funding Director Aquarius Rudianto who were appointed at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGMS) on March 24, 2025 and were able to carry out duties and functions in their positions after obtaining approval of the OJK Ability and Applicability Assessment.