Bank Danamon bankruptcy petition 'not valid'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin said on
\nFriday that the bankruptcy petition filed by Bank IFI against the
\npublicly-listed Bank Danamon at the Jakarta Commercial Court was
\nnot valid.<\/p>\n
Sjahril said that according to the existing law, only the
\ncentral bank had the right to file bankruptcy petitions against
\nbanks.<\/p>\n
\"According to the law, a bankruptcy petition against a bank
\ncan only be made by Bank Indonesia,\" Sjahril told reporters at
\nBank Indonesia headquarters.<\/p>\n
He added that Bank Indonesia would not file a bankruptcy
\npetition against Danamon because such a move could have a
\ndetrimental impact on the overall domestic banking environment.<\/p>\n
\"There are a lot of depositors' money in the bank. If a bank
\nas large as Danamon is put into bankruptcy, there will be
\nnational scale consequences,\" Sjahril said.<\/p>\n
Bank IFI filed a bankruptcy petition on Wednesday against
\nDanamon at the Jakarta Commercial Court on grounds that the
\nlatter declined to pay some US$12 million in debt.<\/p>\n
The move by Bank IFI prompted the Jakarta Stock Exchange on
\nWednesday to suspend transactions in the shares of Bank Danamon,
\nbut the suspension was lifted the following day after learning
\nthat the bankruptcy petition was not valid.<\/p>\n
The debt to Bank IFI was originally created by Bank Nusa
\nNasional, which was acquired by Bank Danamon last year together
\nwith seven other banks as part of the government bank
\nrestructuring program.<\/p>\n
The principal amount of the debt is around $4.6 million, but
\ncombined with interest rates, Bank IFI said that the debt totaled
\n$12 million.<\/p>\n
Danamon disputed the total debt figure claimed by Bank IFI.
\n\"The figure of the interest is much bigger than the figure of the
\nprincipal,\" said Danamon lawyer Amir Syamsudin.<\/p>\n
Amir said that his client had tried to seek an out of court
\nsettlement via several rounds of negotiations facilitated by Bank
\nIndonesia. He said Danamon was ready to pay the $4.6 million in
\ndebt principal plus around $1.4 million \"placement,\" but the
\noffer was rejected by Bank IFI.<\/p>\n
Amir warned that Danamon would fight back if the actions taken
\nby Bank IFI caused damage to its reputation.<\/p>\n
Interest rate<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Sjahril dismissed reports suggesting that several
\ndomestic banks had been badly affected by the central bank's high
\ninterest rate policy.<\/p>\n
\"Please let me know if there are banks which have been badly
\naffected (by the interest rate policy). I don't think there are
\nany,\" Sjahril said.<\/p>\n
The benchmark interest rate of one-month Bank Indonesia SBI
\npromissory notes increased again to 16.26 percent on Wednesday.
\nThe central bank has allowed the interest rate to continue to
\nmove upward in a bid to help curb inflation and defend the ailing
\nrupiah.<\/p>\n
Several banks have reportedly started to suffer financial
\nbleeding again due to negative spread.<\/p>\n
Negative spread occurred mainly because the rising SBI rate
\nput upward pressure on the time deposit rate. On the other hand
\nthe banks could not readily lend money at a higher rate because
\nof the high risk associated with the business activities.<\/p>\n
Some bankers complained earlier that the rising SBI rate could
\ncause their banks to suffer negative spread, which could lead to
\nfurther deterioration in their capital adequacy ratio.<\/p>\n
Sjahril declined to speculate whether the SBI rate would
\ncontinue to increase from the current level.<\/p>\n
\"It will depend on the economy. If it improves, interest rates
\n(may go down),\" he said.<\/p>\n
The government had earlier called on the independent central
\nbank to lower the interest rate, but Bank Indonesia insisted that
\nit would stick to its biased tight monetary policy until
\ninflationary pressure subsided.<\/p>\n
Bank Indonesia pointed out that year-on-year inflation rate
\nduring the past several months had reached around 10 percent
\nlevel.(rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bank-danamon-bankruptcy-petition-not-valid-1447893297",
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