BTN'S CREDIT EXPANSION TO REACH RP15 TRILLION

Jakarta, Oct 13 (ANTARA) - State-owned savings bank BTN said its credit expansion in 2008 would reach Rp15 trillion at the end of the year or about 150 percent of its set target.
"Our credit provision up to now has reached Rp13 trillion," BTN President Director Iqbal Latanro said here on Monday.
He said his bank had previously set itself a target of credit expansion this year at Rp10 trillion but seeing the company's development the credit provision was projected to reach Rp15 trillion at the end of the year.
But based on the government's programs, BTN has tried to slow down credit expansion by way of raising its interest rates.
"We have been trying to reduce credit expansion over the past three months," he said.
He explained that the interest rates of deposits were now set at 13 percent which were in force in all banks.
"There is a kind of regulation that the interest rate of deposit should not be fixed alone but should be adjusted to those of other banks. In the past, we follow market mechanism," he added.
He said that even though Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) had raised its benchmark interest rate to 9.50 percent, BTN still had no plan to raise its interest rates.
"We are still studying whether or not we will raise our interest rates," Latanro said