Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Publicly-traded lender PT Bank Mandiri reported a 26.6 percent increase on-year in net profit to Rp15.5 trillion in 2012.

"The surge in net profit was attributable to 23.7 percent rise in outstanding credits by the end of 2012," Zulkifli Zaini, the president of the state bank, told reporters here on Monday.

The bank`s outstanding credit grew to 388.8 trillion by the end of 2012 from Rp314.4 trillion a year earlier, with the highest growth for small credits.

Growing fee-based income also contributed to the rise in net profit, Zulkifli said.

"Fee based income rose 2.4 percent to Rp12.2 trillion in 2012 from Rp11.95 trillion in 2011," he said.

He said the public confidence in the the country`s largest bank also grew as indicated by an increase in the amount of third party funds it holds.

Third party funds held by the bank rose to Rp482,9 trillion by the end of 2012 from Rp422.2 trillion a year earlier, he said.

He said cheap funds including giro and savings made up the bulk or Rp316.1 trillion of the total amount of third party funds.

"Savings contributed Rp202.2 trillion to the cheap fund or an increase of 23.5 percent," he said.

The bank has continued to expand its network of branches and supporting facilities to increase its capacity to collect cheap funds.

In 2012, the bank opened 273 new units of bank branch bringing the number of its branches to 1,810 units including auxiliary offices from 1,537 units in 2011.

It also has increased the number of its ATM units by 1,989 units to 10,985 units, and the number of its Electronic Data Capture (EDC) units to 180,352 units.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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