IBRA forms new team for troubled Bank Bali<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA)
\nformed a new management team for the beleaguered Bank Bali on
\nTuesday in response to protests against the Standard Chartered
\nBank (SCB) directors who had been leading the bank.<\/p>\n
\"The new eight-member management team consisting of IBRA
\nofficials and outside professionals is coordinated by Henry
\nKoenaifi, formerly the caretaker of nationalized Bank Jaya,\" IBRA
\nspokesman Franklin Richard announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Franklin said in a press release IBRA also would conduct a
\nfinancial and legal audit of alleged irregularities at Bank Bali
\nto ascertain what actually occurred at the bank.<\/p>\n
The press statement, however, did not explicitly state that
\nthe SCB management team, which has led Bank Bali since late July
\nunder a contract with IBRA, had been terminated.<\/p>\n
Representatives of IBRA and Bank Indonesia met earlier on
\nTuesday to attempt to defuse the protests against the SCB
\nmanagement team.<\/p>\n
Local Bank Bali staff members, seemingly unhappy with the SCB-
\nappointed expatriate directors' management of the bank, have
\nstaged daily protests since last month. The local staff have
\nalleged that SCB is engineering a hostile takeover of Bank Bali.<\/p>\n
The Bank Bali employees also accused the SCB directors of
\nbeing \"arrogant English people\" who were paid too much and lived
\nluxuriously in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
SCB reportedly hired more than 40 foreigners at a cost to Bank
\nBali of almost the combined salaries of the 6,300 local
\nemployees.<\/p>\n
The foreigners also are alleged to be working at Bank Bali
\nwithout proper visas.<\/p>\n
SCB fired one Bank Bali employee and suspended 47 others last
\nweek. In response, local staff members forcefully evicted the
\nforeign employees from the bank's headquarters.<\/p>\n
Voicing supporting for the Bank Bali employees, legislators
\nurged Bank Indonesia on Tuesday to exercise its authority to
\nterminate the management and investment agreements between SCB
\nand IBRA.<\/p>\n
However, Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin said during a
\nhearing with the House of Representatives Commission IX on
\nbanking and Commission II on legal affairs that he was not in the
\nposition to judge whether the management contract was legal or
\nnot.<\/p>\n
\"I think we should give this matter to the legal experts,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He cautioned that the unilateral cancellation of the contract
\nwould negatively impact foreign investors' perception of the
\ncountry's bank restructuring program.<\/p>\n
IBRA and Bank Bali also would have to pay US$25 million to SCB
\nif the three-year management contract was terminated early,
\naccording to a clause in the agreement.<\/p>\n
Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Anwar Nasution said if SCB
\npulled out of Bank Bali, the bank would face the risk of
\nliquidation because it was currently operating with negative
\ncapital.<\/p>\n
\"If there are no other investors to replace SCB, Bank Bali
\nshould be liquidated,\" he said during a break in the hearing with
\nthe House commissions.<\/p>\n
IBRA, a unit of the finance ministry, took over Bank Bali in
\nJuly after its former owner, the Ramli family, failed to raise 20
\npercent of the bank's total recapitalization cost.<\/p>\n
The agency selected SCB to manage Bank Bali after the British
\nbank offered $56 million for a 20 percent stake in Bank Bali.<\/p>\n
The publicly listed Bank Bali was scheduled to launch a rights
\nissue in October to finance its recapitalization program, but the
\nissue was postponed until December following the high profile
\nBank Bali scandal. The scandal centers on the questionable
\ntransfer of some $80 million from the bank to a politically well-
\nconnected company. (rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ibra-forms-new-team-for-troubled-bank-bali-1447893297",
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