Indonesia

Australia I China I Hong Kong I India I Indonesia I Japan I Malaysia I Mongolia I Pakistan I Philippines I Singapore I Taiwan I Thailand

This year’s choice for best bank in Indonesia is perhaps not an obvious one. Although Bank Rakyat Indonesia offers a full commercial banking service, it has remained close to its roots and focuses on the less glamorous banking sectors of rural and micro finance. The bank is no less profitable for this, though. In the 2005 fiscal year, BRI, Indonesia’s fourth-largest bank by assets, provided its shareholders with a 34.8% return. That figure is explained by a return on average assets of 3.6% and a cost-income ratio of just 43.3%

BRI’s focus on what it terms the MSME sector – micro and small to medium-size enterprises – means that the bank is ruthlessly efficient at maintaining a low cost of funds, most of which it sources from low income to middle income brackets. BRI subsequently enjoys extraordinarily high net interest margins, of around 12%.