National Sharia Bank to Become BSI's Competitor

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Shareholders of Bank Victoria Syariah have approved the change of the company name to National Sharia Bank (Bank Syariah Nasional / BSN) at the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM) held in Menara BTN, Jakarta, Wednesday (20/8/2025). Director of Consumer Banking of PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk Hirwandi Gafar and Head of Jakarta Heritage Hall Amien Fajar Ocham also attended the agenda.

This name change became part of the continuation of BTN Sharia's spin off process into Sharia Public Bank using Bank Victoria Sharia (BVIS) as a shell company. In the future, the BSN name will be used BTN Sharia as the corporate identity and product service brand after obtaining official permission from regulators.

Earlier, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir revealed a major plan to transform the Sharia Business Unit (UUS) of Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) into a National Sharia Bank. The move is believed to strengthen Indonesia's sharia financial ecosystem while maintaining a healthy competitive climate in the banking industry.

Erick explained that the existence of BSN will later be complementary to Bank Sharia Indonesia (BSI), which was previously born from the merger of Sharia banks owned by BNI, BRI, and Mandiri. With the advent of BSN, it is expected to minimize monopolistic market practices.

“This National Sharia Bank is certainly our return, we must not make this market monopolistic. So if there is a BSI, now BSN is born which I hear is quite aggressive in the market, this would be a balance,” Erick said.

In addition to being a healthy competitor in the market, BSN said it will have a strategic role in supporting national and international sharia financial services in the future. According to Erick, the existence of this new BSN will be a new backbone for the development of Indonesian sharia finance.

“Well, this is what I think is a good solution for payment systems and others,” he explained.