Bank Mandiri told to transfer bad loans<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Finance minister Bambang Sudibyo said on Monday
\nstate Bank Mandiri should "immediately" transfer its remaining
\nbad loans to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).<\/p>\n
He said there should be no more delays in the transfer of the
\nbad loans to the agency.<\/p>\n
"All category five (bad) loans must be transferred (to IBRA),"
\nBambang told reporters following a monthly meeting with the
\ncentral bank.<\/p>\n
Under the government bank recapitalization program, all
\nrecapitalized banks must transfer their bad loans or category
\nfive loans to IBRA to have a clean balance sheet.<\/p>\n
The government completed the recapitalization of Bank Mandiri
\nin December by injecting some Rp 178 trillion worth of bonds.<\/p>\n
Bank Mandiri passed some Rp 76 trillion in bad loans to IBRA
\nlast year. This represents about half of its total bad loans.<\/p>\n
Bank Mandiri, the country's largest bank, was formed in July
\n1999 through a merger of Bank Bumi Daya (BBD), Bank Dagang Negara
\n(BDN), Bank Ekspor Impor (Bank Exim) and Bank Pembangunan
\nIndonesia (Bapindo).<\/p>\n
Separately, IBRA senior official Andreas Bunanta said on
\nMonday that there were about Rp 23 trillion in bad loans left at
\nBank Mandiri.<\/p>\n
He said the bank said it wanted to manage and restructure
\nabout Rp 9 trillion of the loans until June this year.<\/p>\n
He said the remaining Rp 14 trillion should have been
\ntransferred by the end of last year.<\/p>\n
State banks were treated as the cash cows of politicians and
\nwell-connected businessmen in the past during the authoritarian
\nrule of former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
There has been increasing concern that state banks joining the
\ngovernment bank recapitalization program were trying to keep the
\nbad loans out of IBRA's hands.<\/p>\n
State Bank BNI has recently been attacked by the media on
\nallegations that it was trying to keep bad loans owed by
\nintegrated textile Texmaco Group.<\/p>\n
The loans were finally transferred by BNI late last week after
\nthe central bank issued a ruling for the transfer.<\/p>\n
The Texmaco loans transferred by BNI totaled more than Rp 9
\ntrillion.<\/p>\n
Texmaco was hit by controversy last year after a minister
\nrevealed that the company had used its connection with former
\npresident Soeharto to obtain more than Rp 9 trillion in loans
\nfrom Bank BNI.<\/p>\n
The government is set to soon recapitalize publicly listed
\nBank BNI. (rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bank-mandiri-told-to-transfer-bad-loans-1447893297",
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