PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk ( "Indonesian People's Bank"), commonly known as Bank BRI or just BRI, is one of the largest banks in Indonesia. It specialises in small scale and microfinance style borrowing from and lending to its approximately 30 million retail clients through its over 8,600 branches, units and rural service posts. It also has a comparatively small, but growing, corporate business. As of 2022, it is the second largest bank in Indonesia by asset. BRI is the oldest bank in Indonesia, tracing back since 1895. It is currently 53% government owned operating company (Persero) and has been government-owned for the entire period since the war of independence (1945 to 1949) to November 2003, when 30% of its shares were sold through an IPO.

History

BRI was founded in 1895, during the Dutch colonial period as De Poerwokertosche Hulp en Spaarbank der Inlandsche Hoofden (Help and Savings Bank for Purwokerto's Aristocrats) by Raden Bei Aria Wirjaatmadja in Purwokerto, Central Java. It then underwent its first (of many) name changes to Hulp en Spaarbank der Inlandsche Bestuurs Ambtenaren (Help and Savings Bank for Local Civil Servants). Going through several name changes, its final name during the colonial period was Algemene Volkscredietbank (People's General Credit Bank, AVB) in 1934. This translates loosely into Indonesian as Bank Rakyat Serikat. At this point, it was one of the largest institutions in the (then) colony. The bank's operations were affected by the Japanese occupation during the 1942 to 1945 period of World War II, including a further name change to People's Bank (Japanese:, Indonesian: Bank Rakjat (old spelling, current spelling: Bank Rakyat)). After the Indonesian declaration of independence, on 17 August 1945 the bank was officially nationalised by the new government and then renamed Bank Rakyat Indonesia Serikat. BRI gained its current name and limited company status in 1992. Since then, BRI has been concentrating on increasing its core business and improving its risk management practices. As part of the reformasi (reform) process in Indonesia since 1998, the government has been steadily reducing its influence on the Bank's day-to-day operations, culminating in its IPO. It is also seeking to comply with the Basel II accords, as mandated by Bank Indonesia, by 2008. During the period of 2006–2011, its assets jumped almost 62%. The bank topped the list of the nation's most profitable banks for six years, recording assets of Rp 249.56 trillion (US$28.6 billion) in 2010, up from Rp 154.72 trillion in 2006.

Offices worldwide

Satellite

In April 2014, BRI contracted with Space Systems/Loral and Arianespace to, respectively, build and launch their first satellite, a 3500 kg C-band and Ku-band spacecraft dubbed BRIsat, and on 18 June 2016, Ariane 5 has successfully launched BRIsat as the first satellite owned and operated by a bank in the world to link the bank's geographically isolated branches.