Bank Panin ups reserves

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed Bank Panin reported a pretax and reserves profit of Rp 489 billion (US$56.86 million) in 1999, but will not pay a dividend.

The management said at a recent shareholders meeting it had to increase the bank's reserves for productive assets by Rp 451 billion to Rp 875 billion, in anticipation of the continuing uncertainty in the industry which might have a negative impact on the quality of its productive assets.

The bank also said it would continue to lend to the consumer sector and mid-size businesses, and to finance international trade.

Bank Panin is one of the country's healthier banks with a capital adequacy ratio of 71.9 percent last year and 67.6 percent as of March this year, well above the government-set minimum of 4 percent. (rei)