The new Indonesian Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, transferred government funds totaling Rp200 trillion from Bank Indonesia (BI) to a group of state-owned banks (Himbara) on Friday (12/9/2025).
The Himbara banks that received the funds are Bank Mandiri, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), and Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI).
According to Minister of Finance Purbaya, this policy aims to increase liquidity or the availability of cash in banks.
After the increase in liquidity, banks are expected to be able to increase credit disbursement to the real sector, and thus encourage faster economic growth.
"The goal is for banks to have a lot of money, a sudden influx of cash, and they can't put it anywhere else except lending it out. So, we're forcing the market mechanism to work," said Minister of Finance Purbaya, as reported by Antara, Wednesday (10/9/2025).
Before receiving the transfer from Minister of Finance Purbaya, these Himbara banks generally had good liquidity.
This is evident from the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of each bank, which is still within—or not far from—the safe limits set by BI.
LDR is the ratio of credit or financing disbursed by a bank, compared to the total deposits or third-party funds managed by that bank.
A high LDR indicates low liquidity, where the bank's capacity to disburse new credit is decreasing.
While a low LDR indicates high liquidity, where the bank still holds a lot of cash to be disbursed.
However, an excessively low LDR is also unhealthy, as it indicates that there are a lot of "idle" funds or unused funds.
Based on BI Regulation No. 15/15/PBI/2013, the lower limit of the LDR ratio is 78% and the upper limit is 92%.
Until the first half of this year, the majority of Himbara banks had an LDR ratio within these limits, except for Bank Mandiri and BTN which slightly exceeded the upper limit.
Here is a breakdown of the LDR ratio at the five Himbara banks receiving funds from Minister of Finance Purbaya, for the March-June 2025 period:
1. Bank Mandiri (March): 92.5%
2. BTN (June): 92.36%
3. BSI (March): 89.87%
4. BNI (June): 86.2%
5. BRI (June): 84.97%