Jakarta – Several banks have said they have been able to reduce the number of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the first quarter through various measures including more selective disbursement.

State-owned lender Bank Tabungan Negara's (BTN) risk director Mahelan Prabamtarikso said the bank's NPLs from commercial credit had decreased to 5.27 percent from 5.31 percent late last year.

"BTN targets to decrease the NPLs from commercial loans to 4 percent by the end of this year," Mahelan said on Thursday as quoted by kontan.co.id.

Meanwhile, Bank Banten president director Fahmi Bagus Mahesa also said the bank's NPLs had declined. He, however, declined to reveal the figures.

He said commercial loans were a major business area for Bank Banten, the bank owned by the Banten provincial administration, along with consumer credit.

"Commercial credit is used to finance government infrastructure projects," he added.

Meanwhile, NLPs from the commercial credit of Bank Jatim was still high as of March at 11.67 percent, although it was a significant decrease from 18.8 percent in March 2018.

The bank, owned by the East Java regional administration, targeted to reduce NLPs to 8 percent by the end of this year.

Bank Jatim finance director Ferdian Timur Satyagraha said measures would be taken to curb NLPs, including through write-offs, collection and more careful disbursement of new commercial loans. (bbn)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/04/12/banks-reduce-number-of-nonperforming-loans-in-q1.html