Winning this award for a consecutive year, PT Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) has cemented its position as the leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) in Islamic banking across Asia-Pacific.
As Indonesia’s largest Islamic bank, its achievements are rooted firmly in the wider region, from the sukuk market it has helped open up in Southeast Asia to the community pilots running in Makassar and Bekasi.
The centrepiece of that work is BSI’s sustainability sukuk programme. After its inception in 2024, the bank returned to market in 2025 with a Phase II issuance of IDR5 trillion, oversubscribed 4.4 times. The instruments are open to retail investors from IDR5 million per unit and allocate proceeds 30% to 50% to environmental financing and 50% to 70% to social financing.
The framework carries a ‘green/sustainable’ opinion from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Hub at the University of Indonesia, and BSI has since entered a collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) to support further development and progress towards Green Climate Fund (GCF) accreditation.
The broader sustainable financing portfolio reached IDR73.9 trillion by end-2025 – 23% of the total book – up from IDR66.49 trillion a year earlier. Social financing grew 11% year-on-year to IDR58.3 trillion; green financing rose 11% to IDR15.6 trillion, covering renewable energy, sustainable land use, green transportation and eco-efficient buildings. The portfolio has grown every year since 2021, when it stood at IDR46.56 trillion.
Climate-risk stress testing now covers 100% of the financing portfolio, up from 51.63% in 2024
Third-party ratings reflect the direction of travel. On Bloomberg’s Islamic bank ESG ranking, BSI climbed from ninth place in June 2024 to first by December 2025, with a score of 5.56 out of 10 – up from 3.86 at the time of last year’s award. Its S&P Global ESG score reached 33, placing it fifth among Islamic banks globally.
On emissions, BSI became the first Shariah bank in Indonesia to implement a fully automated digital carbon-tracking platform, independently verified by third-party Jejakin. The system covers Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions across all operational locations and establishes 2024 as the baseline year.
Climate-risk stress testing now covers 100% of the financing portfolio, up from 51.63% in 2024. BSI is one of seven Indonesian banks that signed a joint net-zero commitment with the country’s Financial Services Authority in March 2024.
BSI’s Islamic identity shapes how it approaches the social dimension of ESG, and several of its most distinctive initiatives are grounded in communities across the Indonesian archipelago. Working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Zakat Agency (BAZNAZ), it launched a Green Zakat Framework that directs zakat funds to environmental programmes, with pilots running at Sanane Island, Makassar and Bantar Gebang, Bekasi. Total ZISWAF distribution – covering zakat, infaq, sadaqah and waqf – reached IDR400 billion in 2025, up 30.72% year-on-year. IDR250 billion of that was distributed as corporate zakat through the National Zakat Agency, funded by BSI’s standing allocation of 2.5% of its income.
Mandatory ESG training reached 16,166 employees in 2025, exceeding a 90% awareness target and up from 15,233 the previous year, with coverage extended to the full board of directors, board of commissioners and Shariah supervisory board.
BSI is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking and a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). It also leads the ESG working group at Asbisindo, Indonesia’s Islamic banks association.
