INDONESIA'S BTPN CHALKS UP THE HIGHEST ROE

JAKARTA - PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN) chalked up the second highest return on equity (ROE) among banks in Indonesia after state lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) in 2008.

The medium bank had a ROE of 28.44 per cent by December, 2008 as against BRI's 32.86 per cent with BCA, the country's second largest lender in asset recording 28.29 per cent and Bank Mandiri, the country's largest bank 22.38 per cent.

BTPN recorded a 9.06 per cent increase in net profit to Rp378.89 billion (US$31.6 million) attributable to 32.81 per cent credit expansion that increased its outstanding credit to Rp10.43 trillion. , the newspaper Investor Daily said.

Its net interest income surged 25.85 per cent to Rp1.31 trillion and the bank succeeded in reducing its non performing loan to 0.59 per cent from 1.31 per cent. March 25th, 2009.