Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Financial Service Authority (OJK) has urged representative offices of foreign banks in Indonesia to increase their contribution to the domestic economy by extending more credits to government and private infrastructure projects.

The amount of credits extended by the foreign banks grew by 20 percent to Rp72 trillion in the year ended Oct 31, 2017, Executive Chief of OJK Banking Supervision Heru Kristiyana said here on Wednesday.

"The credits were channeled by head offices through their representative offices. The credits increased significantly," he stated.

However, the representative offices of foreign banks should increase the amount of credits in view of the improving economic condition in the country, coupled with positive sentiments of the global economy, he noted.

"They should support the distribution of more productive credits. As we can look at bank business plans (RBB) in 2018, the amount of credits could grow 13 percent," he remarked.

Kristiyana also called on the representative offices of foreign banks to improve the quality of their human resources in Indonesia through the exchange of information and the use of foreign workers.

He pledged to issue a regulation to increase the supervision of the representative offices` compliance with the regulation on the banking industry in Indonesia.

According to Bank Indonesia data, there are 16 representative offices of foreign banks in Indonesia.

Reported by Indra Arief Pribadi
(T.S012/B/KR-BSR/B003)

Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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