Indonesian women-focused bank posts 13% revenue jump in Q1 2022

BTPN Syariah, an Indonesian Shariah-compliant bank that focuses on women entrepreneurs, recorded an almost 13% year-on-year jump in revenue to 1.3 trillion rupiah (around US$87 million) in the first quarter of 2022.

However, the bank’s return for third parties – the equivalent of interest expenses in a conventional bank – is down 27% to US$5.5 million. Thus, its net profit went up by almost 10% to US$28.4 million in the period, which is even larger than its pre-pandemic figure.

A major contributor to this jump was a surge in loan disbursements, which rose by 9% to US$733 million in Q1 2022 from US$670 million a year prior.

Founded as a Shariah-compliant business unit of Bank BTPN in 2010, BTPN Syariah was spun off as an independent bank in 2014. It focuses on disbursing loans to women entrepreneurs in rural areas across Indonesia. Its network of more than 10,000 agents has reached more than 4.1 million active borrowers.

The bank’s target market is similar to Indonesian peer-to-peer lending firm Amartha.

According to Bank BTPN director Fachmy Achmad, the bank has developed an “adaptive technology” to serve its customers. It aims to give a complete digital banking solution for more affluent users, but it will still provide its offline offering for users who are not tech-savvy.

See also: As digibanks rise, will Indonesia’s online lenders become obsolete?

BTPN Syariah also piloted an app called Warung Tepat, which equips small retail business (warung) owners with bill payment features and general banking services. Warung owners can also buy inventories directly from the app. A representative from the bank said that it has established partnerships to support this feature.

The firm has also laid out a plan to build a digital banking app and set up a venture capital fund. However, both of those initiatives are still pending regulatory approval.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 14,491 rupiah.