#Indonesia gains heft in Islamic banking with 3-way merger

The Indonesian government announced that it would merge the syariah units of three state-owned lenders to create the country’s seventh-largest bank. Pending approval by regulators, the syariah units of Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia will join forces by February to form a lender with roughly 215 trillion rupiah (S$19.8 billion) in assets. The move is part of an ongoing effort among Indonesian officials to capture a bigger slice of the market of religiously observant Muslims.