Bank Rakyat Indonesia

BRI was founded in 1895, during the Dutch colonial period as De Poerwokertosche Hulp en Spaarbank der Inlandsche Hoofden (lit. 'Help and Savings Bank for Purwokerto's Aristocrats') by Raden Bei Aria Wirjaatmadja in Purwokerto, Central Java. It then underwent its first (of many) name changes to Hulp en Spaarbank der Inlandsche Bestuurs Ambtenaren (Help and Savings Bank for Local Civil Servants). Going through several name changes, its final name during the colonial period was Algemene Volkscredietbank (People's General Credit Bank, AVB) in 1934. This translates loosely into Indonesian as Bank Rakyat Serikat. At this point, it was one of the largest institutions in the (then) colony. The bank's operations were affected by the Japanese occupation during the 1942 to 1945 period of World War II, including a further name change to People's Bank (Japanese: 庶民銀行 (Hepburn: shominginkō, Kunrei-shiki: Syomin Ginkoo), Indonesian: Bank Rakjat (old spelling, current spelling: Bank Rakyat)). After the Indonesian declaration of independence, on 17 August 1945 the bank was officially nationalised by the new government and then renamed Bank Rakyat Indonesia Serikat. BRI gained its current name and limited company status in 1992.

Since then, BRI has been concentrating on increasing its core business and improving its risk management practices. As part of the reformasi (reform) process in Indonesia since 1998, the government has been steadily reducing its influence on the bank's day-to-day operations, culminating in its IPO. It is also seeking to comply with the Basel II accords, as mandated by Bank Indonesia, by 2008.

During the period of 2006–2011, its assets jumped almost 62%. The bank topped the list of the nation's most profitable banks for six years, recording assets of Rp 249.56 trillion (US$28.6 billion) in 2010, up from Rp 154.72 trillion in 2006.

On 16 October 2025, coinciding with the kick-off of BRI's 130th anniversary celebration, BRI unveiled a soft-launch of the new logo in which "Bank Rakyat Indonesia" wordmark in Inter Display typeface (a variant of Inter which would later become the official corporate font) were placed under the updated BRI logo written in a modified variant of AU Passata typeface, introduce Nusantara Blue, Cakrawala Blue, and Mentari Blue as the new official colours, and Satu Bank Untuk Semua (lit. 'One Bank for All') as BRI's new corporate slogan. The new logo and slogan were then officially introduced on 16 December 2025, during the launch of the new corporate rebranding for almost all subsidiaries and services under BRI Group (with exception of Pegadaian, Permodalan Nasional Madani, and Bank Raya Indonesia). During the corporate rebranding, he BRI monogram was modified for the first time since 1985.

On 30 December 2025, BRI signed an agreement with F.C. Barcelona to become the Official Commercial Banking Partner of the club in Indonesia, which is in effect until 31 December 2027. As part of its sponsorship, a special edition of BRI Debit Card was unveiled on 14 February 2026 at Kasablanka Mall.

On 8 April 2026, BRI became the first bank in Indonesia to receive ISO/IEC 25001:2014 certificate regarding planning management of Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE).

On 25 May 2026, as part of digital transformation, BRI soft launched a new application designed to be a future replacement of BRImo, namely Qita by BRI. The new application name was derived from Indonesian slang word meaning Kita (lit. 'Our').