Jakarta, 13 May 2022 -- PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BNI (stock code: BBNI) is serious about strengthening its business towards compliance with joint and global efforts to protect the environment.
Considerations for compliance with regulatory provisions, environmental protection efforts, and internal regulations without leaving business considerations have made BNI survive and continue to conduct quality expansion to date.
"As a pioneer of green banking, we continue to look for opportunities to expand the green segment while proactively inviting customers and investors to be more interested in developing this sustainable economic segment," said Mucharom while answering the doubts of some parties regarding BNI's commitment to upholding the value of prudence.
As for from January to March 2022, BNI was quite aggressive in disbursing green financing to various segments. This can be seen from its green portfolio (bank only) as of March 2022 which reached Rp 170.5 trillion, growing 21.8% on an annual basis (year on year/yoy).
Mucharom explained that the green portfolio value is equivalent to 28.9 percent of the company's total loan portfolio. Of this amount, the majority are micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“Our green portfolio is quite expansive, where earlier this year the growth was 21.8%. The support is mostly from credit in MSMEs and this is because the mentoring program carried out by BNI has a positive impact on the community ecosystem," he said.
He detailed that financing for MSMEs and socio-economic empowerment had the largest portion, reaching Rp 115.2 trillion. Then, the management of living natural resources and sustainable land use of Rp. 14.9 trillion, financing to the new and renewable energy sector (EBT) of Rp. 10.3 trillion. Next, financing for pollution prevention is Rp. 6.8 trillion, and other green financing is Rp. 23.3 trillion.
“BNI is also actively collaborating with new and renewable energy (EBT) debtors and preventing pollution. The exposure for this EBT financing is Rp 10.3 trillion and Rp 6.3 trillion for pollution prevention. Funding for clean water treatment and waste management reaches Rp 23.3 trillion," he explained.
Mucharom believes that fossil energy is still needed by the Indonesian people. However, BNI as part of the development of EBT will increase its green financing portfolio, as BNI is a pioneer in green banking, improvements in energy and environmental infrastructure still need to be improved.
On the other hand, BNI still has a loan portfolio for palm oil and coal. The company has special requirements for debtors to be able to be given credit.
As for total credit disbursement to palm oil is only 10% of BNI's total bank-only loans, while lending to the coal sector is only 2% of BNI's total credit.
In addition to aggressively disbursing green financing, BNI also applies the principles of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) in the company's operations which is embodied in a green corporate culture, where BNI obtained Green Building Certification from The Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) with Gold Certification for BNI Tower and Platinum Certification for Plaza BNI.
"The positive performance of green financing, supported by high social and environmental concerns, as well as superior corporate governance practices, has encouraged BNI's ESG rating to increase from MSCI to A since November 2021," he said.
Mucharom further explained that the current A rating is the highest among Indonesian banks, as well as confirming BNI's position as a pioneer in implementing sustainable finance. In addition, BNI also implements a paper-free office administration system or e-office. (*)