KNews.id- The predicate of the country with the largest Muslim population in the world has been attached to Indonesia for decades. As of 2010 alone, the number of Muslim communities in the country reached 229 million people or 87 percent of the total population of around 260 million people. This year, the number is increasing.
The large Muslim population certainly provides an opportunity for Indonesia to grow its Islamic economic sector. However, this potential has not been optimally exploited.
The 2019 Sharia Economic and Financial Report belonging to Bank Indonesia (BI) noted that the performance of sharia economy in general reached 5.72 percent. Its achievements exceed the economic growth rate of around five percent.
Meanwhile, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) noted that sharia financial assets grew 20.61 percent on an annual basis to reach Rp1,639.08 trillion as of July 2020. The notches included Islamic finance in banks and non-banks.
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin assessed that the economic and financial potential of sharia in Indonesia is still large. The reason is, Indonesia has a complete Islamic economic and financial ecosystem.
Starting from laws, regulators, business actors, the community, to the market that support the formation of this system. However, there are still many shortcomings in this sector, one of which is the sub-optimal role of large-scale Islamic financial institutions that are able to become anchors for Islamic finance.
In addition, the existence of Islamic microfinance is not yet massive as an institution that serves the lowest-level people. For this reason, the government initiated the formation of the largest Islamic bank in the country.
This dream was later realized by combining the alias merger of three existing state-owned Islamic banks, namely PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk (BRIS), PT Bank BNI Syariah (BNIS), and PT Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM) to become PT Bank Syariah Indonesia. The process has been carried out since last October.
Currently, the bank has been formed and has a board of commissioners, directors, and the Sharia Supervisory Board (DPS). The top leadership is held by Hery Gunardi as the President Director.
Furthermore, the bank and the composition of the board of directors are targeted to start working on February 1, 2021. In total, assets from the ‘joint venture’ of three state-owned sharia banks after the merger reached Rp220 trillion to Rp225 trillion.
Meanwhile, in 2025, the assets of Bank Syariah Indonesia are predicted to touch the range of IDR 390 trillion. When achieved, Bank Syariah Indonesia will rank seventh or eighth as the largest bank in Indonesia.
In addition, this will lead the bank to become one of the largest Islamic banks in the world. The target, at least to reach the top 10 rank. Refinitiv Head of Islamic Finance Mustafa Adil assessed that the birth of Bank Syariah Indonesia will provide many benefits.
First , making the bank the largest Islamic bank in the country. Second , to provide a bigger boost for Islamic finance to the Islamic economy. This is because a larger business scale currently has the potential to give birth to even heavier sharia financing disbursements to the public and institutions.
“We predict, with the support of the government to merge three Islamic banks, BSI will be able to become a major player in local funding in Indonesia. They will be able to participate in facilitating funding that previously could not be funded, ”said Mustafa.
As an illustration, total financing from Islamic banks reached IDR 377.25 trillion per semester I 2020. The amount increased from IDR 361.12 trillion at the end of 2019. Meanwhile, Islamic banks’ Third Party Funds (DPK) reached IDR 430.2 trillion in the same period. The amount also increased from IDR 425.29 trillion at the end of 2019.
From here, he estimates that the total financing and deposits of Islamic banks in the country will grow even higher after the birth of the Indonesian Sharia Bank. This is because the work of the three banks, which originally each have now become a major force.
BI Governor, Perry Warjiyo, said that the real benefit of the presence of Bank Syariah Indonesia is that it can accelerate the development of the halal supply chain ( halal value chain ) in Indonesia. As a result, a strong supply chain will also provide benefits back to the Islamic finance industry.
“The establishment of the halal value chain is very important so that the demand for Islamic finance, including Islamic banking, is getting bigger,” said Perry.
For that, according to him, the government needs to immediately develop a halal economic supply chain in order to capture the country’s Islamic financial potential in the future. (Ade)
