JAKARTA. Economic uncertainty has led the debtors of major banks to refuse to disburse the credits. Therefore, the number of undisbursed loan remains high.

Financial Services Authority (FSA) recorded that the number of undisbursed loans increased by 4.75% to Rp 1,277.52 trillion since the end of 2015. This is higher than the number of allocated credit, which grew by 3.8% to Rp 4,212.37 trillion.

The undisbursed loans of major banks or Commercial Banks Group of Business Activities (BUKU) III and IV contributed to 92.35% of the toal undisbursed loans.

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The bankers said that the number of undisbursed loans will remain unchanged until the end of the year, due to the low corporate’s capital.

“The undisbursed loans follow the trend of slow economy. This closely related to the debtors’ business expansion plans, which are referring to the business prospect,” said Corporate Secretary of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) Ryan Kiryanto. As of September 2016, the number of undisbursed loan of BNI increased by 30.32% to around Rp 46.59 trillion.

Similarly, Directore of Wholesale Banking of Bank Permata Anita Siswadi said that the increase in undisbursed load was caused by the lack of realization of the corporates’ capital expenditure and the low needs of working capital credits.

President Director of Bank Bukopin Glen Glenardi saud that some big projects remain stagnant, and this has contributed to the increase in the number of undisbursed loans of Bukopin. The bank’s undisbursed loans have increased by 16.31% to Rp 26.24 trillion as per third quarter of 2016.

The improving credit demand at the end of the year and in 2017 is likely to reduce the number of undisbursed loans. The credit disbursements will be supported by the massive infrastructure developments.

“We expect that the credit allocation in the fourth quarter will improve, thanks to seasonal factors,” said Corporate Secretary of Bank Central Asia (BCA) Jan Hendra.

He predicted that the credit disbursements will increase in a moderate manner. Because, even though the economic growth will improve in 2017, BCA will remain selective in allocating credits. As of the third quarter of 2016, the number of undisbursed loans of BCA has grown by 5.82% on annual basis to Rp 106.6 trillion.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)