By Yi Wei Wong

Indonesian lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia's first-half net profit slumped due to business disruptions amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its net profit fell 37% compared with the same period a year ago to 10.201 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($687.2 million), the bank said Wednesday.

The bank also reported that net interest income for the first half fell 8.6% to IDR36.502 trillion.

The Indonesian bank will continue to focus on loan restructuring to help its micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise customers stay afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

"As the economic activities start to recover and the consumer demand is getting back to normal, Bank Rakyat Indonesia is very keen to provide additional working capital through a modified loan scheme that is designed to give a crisis relief to the businesses of our customers," said Bank Rakyat Indonesia's Chief Executive Officer Sunarso in a statement.

The bank's shares rose 0.9% to IDR3,550 in the morning session, trimming this year's losses to 19%. 



  Write to Yi Wei Wong at yiwei.wong@wsj.com