IS MERGER EFFECTIVE AT INDONESIAN ISLAMIC BANKS?

Abstract

The low competitiveness of the Islamic banking industry has made the government worried about the future survival of this business unit. A merger is an alternative policy taken by the government to build and strengthen institutions in the Islamic banking industry. So this research aims to analyze the merger strategy's effectiveness by three state-owned Islamic banks such as Bank Syariah Mandiri, BNI Syariah, and BRI Syariah, to become PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk. The research method is a qualitative exploratory approach with analysis tools used in the Five Forces Model and SWOT analysis. The results of this study indicate that the merger program conducted by PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk is considered adequate because the management implements several strategies such as product differentiation and innovation, orientation on service quality, institutional strengthening, and focusing on digital-based business development to encourage increased competitiveness of Islamic banking. in the industry.