Indonesia's banks have been outpacing regional peers in profitability

It's been the case since 2013.

It has been noted that Indonesian banks have been trumping regional peers in profitability.

According to a research note from SNL Financial, shares in the largest Indonesian banks have outperformed the wider Asian banking industry since 2013.

Between Jan. 1, 2013, and April 1, 2015, shares in Bank Rakyat Indonesia and PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk returned 98.47% and 108.98%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the SNL Asia-Pacific Bank index gained 16.12%. Only PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk generated a lower return than the index.

Here's more from SNL Financial:

Indonesia’s largest bank, PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk, reported 855.039 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$68.85 billion) in assets at the end of 2014. PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk was the country’s second-largest bank with 801.955 trillion rupiah in assets.

According to Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, Indonesia is home to the world’s largest retail Islamic banking market, with 17.3 million customers, 2,990 bank offices, 1,267 Shariah-compliant products and 43,000 employees as of 2013.

Aggregate credit extended by banks grew by 11.65% to 3.742 quadrillion rupiah in 2014, while deposits grew by 12.35% to 4.173 quadrillion rupiah.

The industry’s asset-weighted average return on average equity fell 146 basis points year over year to 18.44% in 2014.

Over the course of 2014, the industry’s weighted average Tier 1 ratio rose 58 basis points to 15.08%, the highest among Indonesia’s peer nations: Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The weighted average nonperforming loan ratio increased to 2.07% in 2014 from 1.80% in 2013 but fell from 3.36% posted in 2009.

Five-year credit default swaps on five-year Indonesian sovereign bonds traded at 153.25 basis points as of April 2, 2015, down from the mid-2013 peak of 295.22 basis points.

There have been eight M&A deals targeting Indonesian banks since the beginning of 2014, including two announced in the first quarter of 2015. The most recent one is Sumitomo Corp.’s Feb. 18 acquisition of a 17.5% stake in PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk, worth $463.12 million.

As of April 1, PT Bank of India Indonesia Tbk was the only Indonesian bank to raise common equity in 2015. There have been 16 offerings since 2013, 10 of which took place that year.