•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Bank CIMB Niaga, Indonesia’s fifth-largest lender, has injected Rp 100 billion ($11 million) into its Islamic banking subsidiary to increase its lending, it said in a statement on Thursday.

The new money brings CIMB Niaga Syariah’s capital to Rp 450 billion as of December, the statement added.

“The capital injection for CIMB Niaga Syariah was part of CIMB Niaga’s commitment to help boost its Shariah business, in terms of financing, as well as maintaining a strong capital adequacy ratio level,” said Ferdy Sutrisno, the director of retail banking and Islamic banking at CIMB Niaga.

He said the new injection would bring CIMB Niaga Syariah’s CAR, which measures a bank’s health, to above 14 percent. The minimum level set by the central bank is 8 percent.

U Saefudin Noer, head of Shariah banking at CIMB Niaga, said CIMB Niaga Syariah’s business was expanding.

He said that the bank disbursed Rp 2.82 trillion from January to September, a 95 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

Third-party funds, which include savings, time deposits and demand deposits, also rose 95 percent, to Rp 3.44 trillion

The increase in these two key indicators propelled a rise in asset value by 71 percent as of September. Assets rose to Rp 4.21 trillion from Rp 2.42 trillion.

CIMB Niaga Syariah’s net income rose 87 percent to Rp 48.74 billion. Its ratio of operational costs and revenue, which measures efficiency in managing overhead costs, fell to 72.35 percent from 81.1 percent.

The bank’s products and services can be accessed at 24 Shariah offices and the 558 offices of CIMB Niaga. The bank is 97.93 percent controlled by Malaysia’s CIMB banking group.

Assets of Shariah banks in Indonesia totaled Rp 104 trillion at the end of last year.