BRI Claims 65 Percent Of Loan Disbursement According To ESG Principles, MSME Segment Dominates

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA – PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk. (BRI) reported that as much as 65.5 percent or around Rp. 617.8 trillion of the total loan portfolio last year had implemented environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.

BRI's Compliance Director, Ahmad Solichin Lutfiyanto, said this number increased by approximately 12.2 percent year-on-year (yoy) compared to 2020 which was Rp. 550.4 trillion.

"This credit distribution is of course dominated by the MSME segment, which will reach around IDR 547 trillion in 2021," he said in a press statement today, Tuesday, March 1.

According to Solichin, the company will continue to focus and increase financing to the MSME segment to reach 85 percent by 2025.

"Currently, BRI credit for the MSME segment alone reaches 83.86 percent of the company's total financing portfolio on a consolidated basis in 2021," he said.

Solichin added, from the credit given to MSMEs, BRI has also built 400,000 new jobs.

"That's what we noted in the sustainability report," he added.

For information, as many as 45 million ultra micro business actors are recorded to still need funding, both new and additional funding. If detailed, only about 15 million were touched by formal financing institutions. Meanwhile, about 30 million others have not been touched by formal financing institutions.

Of the number of business actors who have not been touched by these formal financial institutions, seven million of them rely on loans from relatives, and there are also five million business actors who rely on moneylenders. Therefore, the bank with the issuer code BBRI assesses that there are still as many as 18 million business actors who have not been touched by the services of financial institutions.

"In priority, the company will first target 18 million business actors who have not been touched by financial institutions. We have aspirations to be the bank that is at the forefront and most concerned in implementing ESG in Indonesia and Southeast Asia," concluded Solichin.