PT Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk will step up its involvement in the financing of infrastructure projects and continue growing the small and medium enterprises (SME) portfolio.

President Director Taswin Zakaria said this is in line with the government's economic development agenda.

"Through our extensive reach and regional capabilities, we believe we can leverage the group's resources to support the country's growth agenda," he said in a statement.

He said Maybank Indonesia continued to demonstrate improvement at the operating level in the first nine months of 2016, and is optimistic of concluding the year with commendable results, despite the challenging market conditions.

Between January-September 2016, Maybank Indonesia delivered a net profit after tax and minority interest of Rp1.3 trillion, an 118.4 percent increase from Rp592.2 billion achieved in the same period a year ago (RM1=Rp3,117.29).

The bank's pre-tax profit surged 123.7 percent reaching Rp1.8 trillion in September 2016 from Rp784 billion in September 2015.

SME and commercial loans growth continued to be the backbone in generating revenue with a 14.7 percent growth to Rp48.7 trillion.

Net Interest Income, improvement in fee based income, continuous cost management efforts and outstanding achievement in Sharia Banking contributed to the overall improved performance for the period.

Sharia banking continued to record outstanding performance in the nine months of 2016. Net profits increased by 43.9 percent to Rp344 billion.

The bank, however, recorded modest loans growth of 4.4 percent as at September 2016 to Rp116.4 trillion from Rp111.5 trillion in September 2015. -- Bernama