Bank Central Asia: The best bank you’ve (probably) never heard of

Illustration: Peter Crowther

There was a minor kerfuffle last February when DBS was briefly dethroned as southeast Asia’s largest bank by market capitalization. These things do not much matter of course, but still it was striking that the multinational Singaporean had been overtaken in value. 

So who was this usurper? Fellow Singaporeans OCBC or UOB? Malaysia-based Asean specialists Maybank or CIMB? No, the answer was Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia (BCA).

Although the name is little known outside Indonesia, BCA has long been very popular with anyone who has invested in it.