JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) raised the minimum capital requirement for banks, in a bid to anticipate the return of Indonesians’ assets currently placed in tax havens via the tax Amnesty Law.
OJK chief Muliaman Hadad said the repatriation funds could help increase the national banking system’s liquidity. However, these funds can also prompt banks, especially BUKU I and BUKU II commercial banks, to compete in raising their interest rates.
To avoid interest rate war, the OJK believes that banks need to raise their minimum capital limit. Banks need to prepare enough capital as the repatriated fund is quite large, he said in Jakarta Thursday, April 28.
The government and the House of Representatives are currently discussing the tax amnesty draft, which will be used to pardon the untaxed funds saved by Indonesians overseas. The ultimate goal is to make bring these funds back to Indonesia, thus increasing the state’s tax revenue and.
Bank Indonesia (BI) estimated that the tax amnesty law can bring back up to Rp560 trillion. Investors are expected to invest their funds in bank instruments.
Indonesian banks are categorized into four BUKU groups, based on the amount of their core capitals. BUKU I banks are those with a capital of Rp100 million to Rp1 trillion. BUKU II banks have a core capital between Rp1 trillion and Rp5 trillion. BUKU III banks are those with capitals between Rp5 trillion to Rp30 trillion, and BUKU IV banks have core capitals of more than Rp40 trillion.
The banking industry welcomes OJK’s plan. Bank Central Asia’s corporate secretary Setiawati Inge said the company is ready to implement the policy. However, she declined to make any comment regarding the repatriated funds.
OJK will provide an incentive for banks, in a bid to pursue low lending rates. The incentive will be in the form of a regulation on the minimum capital requirement for banks to open branches.
Banks that can lower their net interest margin (NIMs) and operating cost-to-operating income ratio (OERs) will be given a discount for the minimum amount of core capital allocation for the opening of new branches. This will allow banks that are planning to open new branches to have higher capacities.
“The current rules to open new branches are quite disincentive. There will be a new rule that can serve as an incentive for banks,” OJK chief executive for banking supervision Nelson Tampubolon said on Thursday, April 28, as quoted by Antara.
The regulation will be published in the form of OJK’s circular (SE-OJK) on the Opening of Commercial Banks Networks based on Core Capital. The regulation will also stipulate the minimum OER eligible for the incentive.
To get the incentive, BUKU III and BUKU IV banks must have an OER of less than 75%. Meanwhile, BUKU I and BUKU II banks must have OERs lower than 85 percent. As for the NIM, all banks with NIMs lower than 4.5 percent will get the incentive.
Nelson said the new rule can increase banks’ efficiency, which would allow them to disburse more credit with lower interest rates.