Bank Central Asia Tbk PT : Indonesia's Bank Central Asia first-half income jumps on higher investment loans

(Reuters) - PT Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's largest bank by market value, said on Wednesday its first-half net income rose 12.6%, boosted by higher investment loans.

The lender reported a net income of 12.9 trillion rupiah ($922.09 million) for the six months ended June 30, compared with 11.4 trillion rupiah a year earlier.

Bank Central Asia (BCA) President Director Jahja Setiaatmadja told reporters he was hopeful that the bank's non-performing loan ratio would remain under 2% for 2019.

"BCA is quite careful on loan distribution, as we've seen more companies default in paying bonds," Seitaatmadja said.

The company's loan portfolio for the first half of 2019 rose 11.5% to 565.2 trillion rupiah.

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(Reporting by Cindy Silviana, writing by Fanny Potkin, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Shounak Dasgupta)