Bank Negara Indonesia launches micro loans for migrant workers

The lender had already released US$222,000 to migrant workers from the East Java town of Kediri.

Indonesia’s fourth-largest lender by assets, state-owned bank Bank BNI, is eyeing Indonesian migrant workers overseas as a new market for its micro loan product, KUR.

Such workers employed at oil palm plantations in Malaysia were among the bank’s main targets for the product, BNI’s general manager for micro loans, Slamet Djumantoro, said Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

“BNI prefers formal sector workers because they are less vulnerable to the condition of the host countries,” he said.

Slamet said that to be eligible for a KUR loan, the workers needed to have secured a job order from an employer, which was then expected to deposit funds to BNI.

View the full story in Jakarta Post.