Erick Thohir Asks Private Banks to Lower Interest Rates

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Minister of State Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said that state-owned banks have lowered their lending rates.

This was done after cutting the BI-7DRRR benchmark interest rate to 3.50 percent in February 2021.

“I just saw the news that Himbara announced a cut in interest rates, but I haven’t calculated how much, but I’ll check again,” said Erick when he was a speaker at the 2021 HIPMI National Working Meeting, Friday (5/3/2021).

Also read: 4 State-owned Banks Lower Credit Interest, Which Is The Cheapest?

In addition, Erick continued, he had also spoken with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to ask private banks to also lower their interest rates.

This needs to be done so that the credit restructuring program during the Covid-19 pandemic can be far more maximal.

“Earlier I asked the OJK if possible not only Himbara, but also private banks at this time must be able to lower interest rates and help with restructuring so that impactit is much bigger, “he said.

Previously it was reported that four State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) banks had lowered their lending rates, following the cut in the BI-7DRRR benchmark interest rate to 3.50 percent in February 2021.

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It is known that regulators and policy makers, including Bank Indonesia (BI), were discouraged because banks were slow to respond to the decline in the benchmark interest rate on bank lending rates.

Bank Indonesia has even mentioned that high credit interest rates are one of the reasons debtors are reluctant to return to the bank. Banks are also considered to be looking for too high a margin in this difficult situation.

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