Arief Wibisono Lubis

Banks prefer to lend to bigger clients for a variety of reasons, including transaction costs and risk considerations. Due to this phenomenon, the Central Bank of Indonesia issued a regulation that requires banks to channel a minimum proportion of their credit portfolio to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Nevertheless, the impact of channeling funds to MSMEs remains a subject of controversy, in part depending on the dimensions and metrics used. This study examines how MSME lending affects the efficiency of banks in Indonesia, a country where MSMEs constitute more than 99% of business entities. Using a total of 175 panel data observations of banks in Indonesia from 2014–2018, banks’ cost efficiency is first estimated using a stochastic frontier approach (SFA). Panel data regression is used to examine the impact of MSME lending on efficiency. The result of this study shows a significant and positive impact of the proportion of MSME lending on bank efficiency, which indicates that requiring banks to channel funds to MSMEs does not only potentially support economic development, but also is beneficial from the business perspective in the Indonesian context.

Acknowledgment
The research was also made possible with the support of PUTI Grant by Universitas Indonesia No. NKB-2036/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies around the world, including the banking industry, and this depends on various factors. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of COVID-19 independently and through the moderation of bank capital ratios on changes in loans of Association of Southeast Asian Nations 5 (ASEAN-5) banking industry players. The study uses a sample of 86 banking companies listed on the stock markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand from the first quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2020 by employing the panel data regression technique. The results showed that COVID-19 had a significant negative effect on changes in bank lending. However, a bank’s capital ratio was not found to play a role in moderating the effect of COVID-19 on changes in bank lending. These findings have three main implications: (i) the role of the government in recapitalization and liquidity injection can eliminate differences in behavior between banks with the classification of capital ratios; (ii) there are no signs of zombie lending in ASEAN-5’s banking industry; and (iii) regulating incentives to change bank lending behavior in future crises must take into account that bank capital categorization will not be effective.

Acknowledgment
This study was made possible with the support of a research grant by Universitas Indonesia number NKB-533/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2022.