Arwin Rasyid appointed as new vice president of bank BNI

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Shareholders of state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) appointed on Thursday former Bank Danamon president Arwin Rasyid as vice president, dismissing earlier speculations that he would be appointed as the bank's CEO.

The decision was made at an extraordinary shareholders meeting, which retained Saefuddin Hasan president of the publicly listed bank.

Analysts said that the appointment of Arwin would help the bank meet its new strategy of expanding loans to the retail and the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sectors.

The top banker has been considered successful in boosting Danamon's lending portfolio in the abovementioned sectors. Arwin left his post at Danamon earlier this week.

Bank BNI said previously that it intended to change its lending strategy by focusing on loans to the retail and SME sectors instead of the corporate sector, which is seen as risky for the time being.

As of March, BNI has channeled 52 percent of its new loans to the corporate sector and 48 percent to the retail and SME sectors.

BNI shareholders also appointed Ignatius Supomo as a director.

During the meeting, shareholders also agreed to allocate 50 percent of the bank's 2002 net profit of Rp 2.51 trillion (US$307 million) for dividends, or Rp 6.33 per share.

The bank reported that its net profit in the first quarter rose by 2.1 percent to Rp 865 billion ($100 million), compared to the same period last year, while interest revenues from lending operations increased to Rp 1.06 trillion from Rp 966 billion.

Saefuddin said that BNI projected this year's net profit to reach Rp 2.8 trillion. The bank's 2003 net profit amounted to Rp 2.5 trillion.