Indonesian banks to see more than 12pc loan growth in 2018

LONDON, Mar 18 (Reuters): Indonesian banks will see 'more than 12 per cent' loan growth in 2018 thanks to a recovering global economy and a pickup in commodity prices, the country's financial regulator said.
Wimboh Santoso, head of Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), said he was confident the sluggish bank lending that has hobbled Southeast Asia's biggest economy was coming to an end.
Loan growth in Indonesia has fallen below 10 per cent since the start of 2016, compared with more than 20 per cent during the commodity boom years before that.
Bank loan penetration in Indonesia, where only one in three adults have bank accounts, was around 34 per cent of GDP in 2015, among the lowest of Asia Pacific countries according to the IMF.
As a result, the country's fintech firms, which offer loans of as little as a few hundred dollars, have seen a spike in lending, leading to the emergence of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.
Santoso said new rules to regulate the financial technology sector would be "coming very soon", where companies will have to clearly designate who is responsible to the customers.
"Under the incoming customer protection laws, we will ask (fintech companies) for accountability and price transparency," he told Reuters in an interview.
Reuters reported last week that OJK was considering setting a cap on interest rates and the size of loans offered by fintech firms, in a move aimed at minimising the risk of defaults.