Jakarta

MORE than a decade after launching the first Islamic Bank, Indonesia is once again attempting to create a vibrant Islamic financial sector in parallel with the traditional banking sector to attract new capital investments from the Middle East and Malaysia.

On Feb 1, President Joko Widodo launched Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI), through the merger of three state-owned syariah banks - Bank Syariah Mandiri, BNI Syariah and BRI Syariah.