BTN to issue mortgage-backed securities worth Rp 1 trillion

Aditya Suharmoko, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Tue, 03/24/2009 11:20 AM

State-run Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) plans to issue up to Rp 1 trillion (US$86.39 million) worth of mortgage-backed securities within the first half of 2009, BTN treasury director Saut Pardede said Monday.

“We plan to issue Rp 500 billion [of mortage-backed securities], but may increase it by up to Rp 1 trillion depending on the situation,” he said.

Last month, BTN issued the country’s first ever Rp 100 billion of mortgage-backed securities, popularly known as KIK EBA, a move Saut said was “testing the waters”.

He added the securities would have a tenure of between three and seven years, with yields based on the government bonds rate with a maturity period of between three and seven years.

The government and Bank Indonesia have signed a joint decree to boost home loans through the sales of mortgage-backed securities, to help provide decent housing to low-income people and to develop the secondary mortgage market.

State-sanctioned PT Sarana Multgriya Finansial will act as a secondary mortgage facility. This way, banks can get their money back faster and disburse loans quicker to people wanting to buy low-cost houses or apartments.

Saut said BTN would put up as collateral housing and apartment projects so that the securities would have an AAA grade rating.

In addition, BTN also plans to issue Rp 1.5 trillion of senior debts for credit expansion. The bank aims to have a lending growth of 14 percent this year.

Saut also said BTN wanted to buy back Rp 250 billion of bonds the bank issued five years ago. The bonds will mature in 2014.

“If we don’t do the buyback, the interest will rise, increasing the cost of funds. The buyback won’t affect our capital adequacy ratio [CAR],” he said, adding the central bank had approved BTN’s plan.

Also on Monday, BTN president director Iqbal Lantaro announced the bank would cut the mortgage loan rate by 50 percentage points to 14 percent starting from April 1.

Last year, BTN booked a 13 percent increase in profit to Rp 722 billion from Rp 640 billion in 2007. Asset value rose 22.6 percent to Rp 44.9 trillion in 2008 from Rp 36.7 trillion in 2007.

Lending growth surged 43.34 percent to Rp 32 trillion in 2008 from Rp 22.3 trillion in 2007. Bad loans remained healthy at 2.6 percent in 2008 compared to 2.8 percent in 2007, still below the BI maximum tolerance of 5 percent. Third party funds also rose to Rp 31.4 trillion in 2008 from Rp 24.1 trillion in 2007.